Case filed against unknown persons in Bhalswa fire

Acting on a complaint by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), police have registered a case against unknown persons in connection with a fire at Bhalswa landfill site causing air pollution due to burning of garbage.

The FIR has been registered at Bhalswa Dairy police station and an enquiry initiated into the cause of fire, police said.

The case has been registered under IPC Section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) by the police.

Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain who yesterday visited the site where simmering fire has been reported for over a week now, said he had instructed the DPCC to file an FIR and impose fresh penalties on the municipal corporations of Delhi.

The Delhi government has also formed a four-member committee to enquire the reasons behind the fire at Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfill sites and the forested portion of Yamuna floodplains behind Raj Ghat Power station.

The committee, headed by Special Secretary (Environment) Kulanand Joshi, will submit its report in three working days.

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai had claimed that the incidents of fire in a forested area behind Raj Ghat and at municipal landfill sites was a “conspiracy to sabotage” the second phase of the odd-even road rationing scheme in a “planned way”.

Bhalswa landfill site was commissioned in 1994 and is not designed as per the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2000.