Garbage mountain on fire: BJP challenges role of MCD and government

A political blame game has also been sparked by the fire that broke out at the dump in Ghazipur on Sunday night, particularly in light of the upcoming city council elections.

A dozen fire tenders were sent to the Ghazipur waste site in east Delhi on Sunday evening after a large fire broke out there. Environmental specialists claim that methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere, is one of the most abundant gases released by the Ghazipur dump.

After losing control of the Municipal Corporation Department (MCD), the Delhi BJP was quick to criticize the AAP administration leading the municipal body for failing to fulfill its pledge to remove the waste.

Delhi BJP spokesman Praveen Shankar Kapoor stated, “Arvind Kejriwal had promised to clean up this landfill site by December 31, 2023, before the 2022 MCD elections, but today, instead of removing old heaps from the landfill site, a new heap has been formed there.”

He called it disgraceful that a fire at the Ghazipur garbage site started as a result of the gross incompetence of the AAP-led MCD, filling the surrounding region with smoke and stench and seriously disrupting local businesses and people. The BJP leader stated, “It is unfortunate that Kejriwal is in jail today, but Gopal Rai, the environment minister of Delhi, and Mayor Shelley Oberoi did not think it necessary to visit the site.”

“I personally inspected the site and gave instructions to the officials to control the fire as soon as possible,” MCD deputy mayor Aaley Muhammad Iqbal said in the interim. The fire seems to have started as a result of the very hot and dry weather, and there are five excavators and many fire engines on the scene to put it out.

According to municipal authorities, the city produces around 11,400 metric tons of rubbish annually, of which 6,200 metric tonnes are disposed of in the three landfills in Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa. One of the AAP’s election pledges for the 2019 state assembly elections was to clear the three landfills.