Now, Bhalswa landfill on fire, Env Minister Gopal Rai asks DPCC to probe incident, submit report

New delhi: With temperatures rising across the country and urban local bodies unable to level massive garbage mounds, Delhi saw its fourth landfill fire of the year so far as the Bhalswa dumping ground in outer north Delhi caught fire on Tuesday evening — sending massive plumes of toxic smoke up in the air.

As large swathes of the garbage mountain went up in flames and the Delhi Fire Services pressed in as many resources as possible to reign it in, the Delhi government sought a detailed report on it as soon as possible and North MCD officials reached the spot to take stock of the situation.

The landfill site comes under the jurisdiction of the North MCD, which said that preliminary inquiries showed that the fire was a result of methane gas emissions combined with the high temperatures of the season.

All three previous landfill fires this year were seen at the Ghazipur landfill site —which had triggered a probe by the Delhi Assembly panel on Environment. This fire was so high up on the garbage mountain that firefighters took over 48 hours to douse the flames fully.

This time, soon after the Bhalswa landfill fire on Tuesday, Environment Minister Gopal Rai took stock of the situation and stated on Twitter that he had directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to investigate all aspects of the fire and submit a report to the government within 24

hours.

Civic body officials were quick to reach the site and take stock of the situation. They added that they received information about the fire around 6 pm and that nearly a dozen fire engines were still engaged in dousing the flames as of 10:30 pm. At the root of the problem of landfill and garbage mound fires lies the inability of urban local bodies to level them and prevent illegal dumping.

In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party has blamed the BJP-run MCDs for indulging in corruption — alleging that this was the reason they were unable to address the city's garbage problem.

After Tuesday's fire, AAP leader Durgesh Pathak went back to blaming the BJP-run MCD for not being able to clear the landfill site as promised in poll manifestos and took to Twitter to say, "This Lanka of BJP's corruption is burning, in this both BJP's arrogance and corruption will burn and

finish BJP."