Concerned about fire at Ghazipur landfill, says HC, seeks report from authorities

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday expressed its concern over the recent incidents of fire at the Ghazipur landfill site here and sought a status report from the Centre, Delhi government, Delhi Pollution Control Commission, and other concerned authorities explaining the reason behind the fire.

The court also asked the authorities to explain how the fire was dealt with and what they intended to do to avoid it in the future. A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi granted three weeks to the respondents to file their response and listed the case for further hearing in May.

"The respondents are directed to file a status report and action taken report disclosing the reason for the outbreak of fire, steps taken to extinguish it, and how respondents propose to ensure that such incident does not occur in the future," ordered the bench also comprising Justice Navin Chawla.

The order was passed by the court on its 2015 suo motu case on the issue of air pollution in the national capital.

The court said that the hazardous waste dumped at the site was burnt in the fire and the same resulted in severe air pollution.

"We are concerned about the fire incident at the Ghazipur landfill site in East Delhi. A fire broke out on March 28 and April 9 leading to the burning of hazardous waste dumped at the site, which in turn led to huge smoke generation leading to severe air pollution" the bench said.

On April 9, a fire had broken out at the Ghazipur landfill site nearly two weeks after a similar incident at the site on March 28.

The Delhi Fire Service officials had said that no casualty was reported.

A thick blanket of smoke had engulfed east Delhi's dumping yard after the March 28 fire which continued to rage on in some pockets even after 23 hours.