DPCC sent notices to corpns for fire at landfill sites

New Delhi: Even as a desperate bid is being undertaken by Delhi government in the form of the odd-even scheme to curb air pollution, it has been revealed that the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) issued show-cause notices to North and East municipal corporations last month for garbage catching fire at Bhalaswa and Ghazipur landfill sites.
Ironically, the corporations are the enforcement agencies to penalise anyone Rs 5,000 for burning garbage, plastic or leaves as per National Green Tribunal's order."We sent the show-cause notices to both the corporations in March. It's strange that their landfill sites are catching fire even though they are responsible for penalising those burning waste," said Kulanand Joshi, member secretary, DPCC.
The DPCC found instances of burning after conducting inspections twice in March and once in February this year, and once in 2015. "Unless they process the garbage and send only inert waste to the sites, methane gas will continue to be generated. The municipal bodies can't seem to do anything about the fires as the existing landfills have long crossed their expiration dates," said DPCC senior environment engineer, BL Chawla.
However, chief engineer of department of environment management services, East Corporation, Pradeep Khandelwal, said that they have already replied to DPCC. "We are not liable to pay any fine as the fire was not intentional. This problem has existed for long," he said.
"But we are taking precautionary measures like covering the garbage with construction and demolition waste and using water sprinklers to douse fires. Processing the waste or mixing inert garbage won't help now as the landfill has been existence for long," he added.
The Bhalaswa landfill site was set up in 1994, much before the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) rules came into force in 2000. Around 2,150 metric tonnes of garbage are dumped here by both North and South corporations. The Ghazipur site is the oldest functioning landfill in the city having been set up in 1984. East Corporation dumps around 2,200 metric tonnes of garbage at this site. All the three functioning landfill sites in the city are not designed as per the MSW rules and do not have any authorisation by DPCC.