New Delhi: A portion of the Bhalswa landfill in Delhi's Badli Assembly constituency collapsed on Sunday.
Police said a small portion of the landfill near Shraddhanand Colony in the outer North district of Delhi collapsed. Two children who got buried in the rubble were immediately rescued. As per locals, the incident occurred at around 11:30 am when a portion of the landfill slipped and fell on nearby houses. Local Congress party leaders visited the spot and talked to people residing near the landfill.
Delhi Congress State President Devendra Yadav also took stock of the situation and helped in the relief work. He targeted the AAP government of Delhi for its failure to clear the landfill. Locals said the landfill is causing diseases and has contributed to pollution in the area. They said only promises are made and nothing has yet been done to clear the landfill. During campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP had promised to remove the landfill site.
Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had visited the Bhalswa landfill site in September, 2023 and said about 45 lakh tonnes of waste from it is expected to be processed and reduced by May, 2024. Kejriwal had said once 45 lakh tonnes of waste gets reduced, 35 acres of land will be reclaimed, which can be reused in multiple ways.
There are three landfill sites in Delhi, located at Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur. Kejriwal had said Bhalswa landfill site has about 60-65 lakh tonnes of municipal waste spread over 72 acres, and besides legacy waste, 2,000 tonnes of fresh waste is getting added daily to the massive dump. The target till today was to reduce 14 lakh tonnes of waste (from it), but it is being done speedily and the target has been exceeded, with the figure being 18 lakh tonnes, he had said.
