No more dumping at Ghazipur

NEW DELHI: A day after a large portion of a garbage mound at Ghazipur landfill site collapsed, leading to two deaths, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Saturday banned dumping of solid waste at the site.

Civic officials said that the waste meant for it would be diverted to a temporary site in Ranikhera near the Delhi-Haryana border.

On Saturday, Baijal held an emergency meeting for immediate measures to be taken in view of Friday's incident of garbage slide at the landfill and ordered an immediate halt to dumping of solid waste and clearing the site within two years.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Baijal at Raj Niwas on Saturday to discuss the matter.

The meeting was attended by EDMC commissioner Ranbir Singh, NHAI general manager RP Singh, Delhi Development Authority Principal Commissioner (Lands) Rajeev Verma and experts in landfill site management.

"The LG directed that no more dumping of solid waste and any other kind of silt would take place at the Ghazipur site.

"The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) would be sending its collected dump to another alternative site immediately," said a press statement from the L-G house.

The statement further said that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will begin the process of lifting, segregating and processing the solid waste by November 2017, for which purpose the requisite processes are already being fast tracked.

"The dumped waste will be used for construction of service roads and the entire landfill site will be cleared within two years," the statement added.

After his meeting with Baijal, Kejriwal said the Delhi government has taken the decision to stop putting any garbage to the existing landfills.

He said two new landfill sites have been identified in North and East Delhi, which will be used for depositing garbage.

The existing garbage at the current sites will be used by NHAI.

A group of experts will be appointed who will take decision to on how clear these landfills.

In the future, the use of landfills will also be stopped. Fresh garbage will directly go to the waste-to-energy plants, on which the Delhi government will work.

Meanwhile, traffic has been diverted from the road adjoining the Ghazipur site as an immediate safety measure and traffic police have been posted in the area to ensure proper traffic circulation.

People are advised to use alternate routes, the LG's press statement said.

NEW DELHI: In the wake of the Ghazipur landfill site accident, North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) on Saturday sought a status report from the Municipal Commissioner about the Bhalswa landfill site. The Corporation said that the Bhalswa landfill site poses a similar threat and directed authorities to take immediate necessary action. Commissioned in 1993, the Bhalswa site became functional in 1994. Lack of management turned it into a mountain.