Massive blaze at Ghazipur landfill, DPCC told to probe

New Delhi: A massive fire broke out at the dumping yard of east Delhi's Ghazipur area on Monday afternoon leading to huge plumes of smoke enveloping the region and neighbouring areas with the fire still raging as late as 10 pm and the Delhi Fire Services bringing on more than 10 fire engines.

No casualty has been reported, an official of the fire department said.

Chief Fire Officer Atul Garg said efforts are on to douse the flames, adding that it may take few more hours. According to the fire department, a call was received at around 2.30 pm about the fire in Khaata at Ghazipur.

Garg told PTI that the cause of fire is yet to be ascertained. A thick blanket of smoke was seen at a section of the dumping yard, where the fire broke out.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation's standing committee chairman Beer Singh Panwar said the fire was caused due to "high temperature" as plastic is one of the major components of the legacy waste and methane keeps getting generated. He said the EDMC has deployed 22 bulldozers to help in the process of dousing the flames.

Meanwhile, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to submit a report on the incident within 24 hours.

In April last year, the DPCC had imposed a fine of Rs 40 lakh on the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) after a blaze at the Ghazipur landfill site.

According to EDMC's plan, the giant mound is planned to be remediated by 2024, and EDMC is in the process of floating a tender for processing 50 lakh MT waste from it. Fires at the landfill are known to worsen pollution levels in the area.

Such incidents had been reported from the Ghazipur landfill in the past too, which indicates lack of measures taken and vigilance observed by EDMC to prevent such episodes", an official said.

AAP tears into BJP: Even as the massive fire at the landfill site enveloped neighbourhoods of Ghazipur in plumes of toxic smoke, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday evening trained its guns on the BJP-run East MCD - alleging that they were unable to competently dispose of waste - which is one of their most important tasks.

"The entire area surrounding the Ghazipur landfill which includes Rajveer Colony, Gharoli Village, Kundli Village, and Ghazipur Village is covered in a blanket of smoke. People are having trouble breathing, and will continue to suffer as the fumes which have risen due to this massive fire will linger over the neighbouring areas for the next few weeks given the scale of its spread," Senior AAP leader and MLA Atishi.

She said that the three huge landfills in the city have been "the only gifts to the people of Delhi by the BJP in its 15 years of rule in the MCD". She said that at the current rate of trommeling, complete disposal of the Ghazipur landfill was estimated to take another 200 years.

She cited a TERI report to say that Delhi's environment had suffered a loss of Rs 450 crore as a result of air and water pollution spreading due to the three landfills.

However, the East MCD has defensively said that they had been requesting and complaining to DDA to speed up the process land they need to clear the landfill. But the DDA has not responded to these requests, they added. EDMC wants to expand the landfill and lessen the height of it, as well as increase trommel machines but DDA is not cooperating with it, they said.