Fire at Bhalswa landfill site: Hussain asks agencies about action taken
NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over the fire raging at Bhalswa landfill site, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Monday enquired about the action taken by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) in extinguishing the fire which broke out Saturday night.
On Monday, Hussain called a meeting of the commissioners and other senior officers of the three municipal corporations, along with senior officers of Environment Department, Delhi Fire Services (DFS) and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to review the preparedness of the civic bodies in handling incidents of fire at the sanitary landfill (SLF) sites at Bhalaswa, Ghazipur and Okhla.
"The commissioners of the three municipal corporations did not attend the meeting," the environment department said in a statement.
However, officers of North MCD – in-charge of managing the Bhalswa landfill – told Hussain that the fire was put out by taking expeditious action.
Meanwhile, officers of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) said that so far as management of Ghazipur site is concerned, they have prohibited entry of rag-pickers to the site.
Adequate staff have been posted for round-the-clock watch of the site to prevent unauthorised entries, they further said, adding that the site is being monitored with CCTVs.
They further informed Hussain that a dedicated fire tender, along with necessary police cooperation, is available to meet with any untoward incident. "In addition, EDMC is managing slope stabilisation to avert sliding of garbage from the top levels," officials said.
Hussain noted with concern that similar arrangements are lacking in the other two landfill sites at Bhalaswa and Okhla. He asked the North MCD and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to make necessary arrangements for fencing their sites, preventing entry of rag-pickers, provision of high mask lights within 15 days, and posting staff for round-the-clock supervision of the sites.
The three civic bodies were also directed to regularly maintain logbooks to record incidents of fire breakout and action taken thereon.
Officers of the three civic bodies also said that the three sites are primarily not scientifically designed and all of them have exceeded their prescribed garbage storage capacities.
They are in the process of developing new sanitary landfill sites and waste-to-energy plants for better disposal and processing of waste.
Hussain, meanwhile, directed officers of DFS to depute a fire tender exclusively to put out fires at the Bhalswa SLF site. DPCC was asked to coordinate efforts for preventing fire incidents with all the three MCDs.
