NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party leader and candidate for North East Lok Sabha constituency, Dilip Pandey, on Wednesday condemned the BJP-led Central government's decision to allow a landfill site near a densely populated area in the Yamuna floodplains. Pandey, who is one of the petitioners in the ongoing case before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding the allocation of land near Sonia Vihar and Gonda Gujran in north east Delhi, said he will file a fresh application challenging the BJP controlled EDMC move to quietly set-up a new landfill site on 42 acres at Gonda Gujran.
He challenged the Delhi BJP President and current north east Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari to make his stand clear on the issue, which concerns the health and well being of lakhs of residents of the area. Pandey said the BJP controlled EDMC has no plan for solid waste management and corruption and incompetence of MCDs is playing havoc with Delhiites.
He said a simple Google image of the area will even make it clear to a layman what havoc will be wreaked if a landfill site is allowed in this area. He was reacting to the latest reports that 42.5 acres of land have been allotted to East MCD for setting-up a new landfill site in north east Delhi. "This is a clear violation of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. Nearby areas like Sonia Vihar, West Karawal Nagar, Sabhapur Village, Ankur Vihar etc, will be destroyed if this foolish move is allowed," Pandey said.
He further said this move also violates the order of the NGT dated March 9, 2016, in which the NGT had clearly directed the DDA that is cannot allow land for a landfill site without the Tribunal's permission. Dilip Pandey said the government's agencies are lying that NEERI had cleared the setting-up of a landfill site at this spot. It is untrue since the NEERI has not given any such clearance. "NEERI report is merely about the land status and nothing else," Pandey said.
Dilip Pandey cited a 1996 Supreme Court judgment to state that a landfill sit cannot come up at the land allotted by the DDA, which ruled that any environmental degradation is enough to deny a landfill site. Pandey said the AAP will fight on possible avenues from legal to public mobilization to expose this BJP fraud.