MCD polls: Sisodia visits Ghazipur landfill, slams BJP over garbage dumps

The deputy CM also accused the BJP of spreading garbage from the Ghazipur landfill on to a larger area to make the mountain of waste the area is infamous for seem shorter.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has turned the national capital into a garbage dump over the past 17 years of its rule in the municipal corporation, claimed Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday in one of his sharpest attacks on the opposition party ahead of the MCD elections in Delhi. The BJP has been in charge of the municipal corporations (since it merged into MCD) for the past 15 years.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia visits the Ghazipur landfill on Wednesday. He said the BJP has turned the capital into a garbage dump. Sanitation has become major issue ahead of the MCD elections in Delhi. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

The deputy CM also accused the BJP of spreading garbage from the Ghazipur landfill on to a larger area to make the mountain of waste the area is infamous for seem shorter. “Now, the BJP is trying to deceive the people of Delhi by simply widening the spread of garbage as a facade to portray reduction of garbage at the landfill. The BJP is hastily spreading the garbage from the site into the nearby vacant lands. This attempt to reduce the height of the garbage mountain led to the collapse of a wall at Ghazipur Mandi,” he said after a visit to the landfill on Wednesday.

The BJP hit back at Sisodia and called his visit to Ghazipur “political tourism”. “People of Delhi very well understand that this is sheer political tourism because if the CM and his deputy had taken any interest in getting landfill sites cleared, they would have issued special funds for the purpose. It’s regrettable that during the last eight years, the Kejriwal government has not only cut down on general sanitation fund for the MCD, but also not issued any funds to help clear the landfill,” said BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor .

On Tuesday, AAP MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak alleged that a portion of the landfill collapsed, damaging structures in its vicinity. However, MCD has said that the landfill is intact, and added that a portion of a wall near the waste to energy plant in Ghazipur was damaged.

Decreasing the height of the garbage mountain which is taller than the Qutub Minar is one of the key promises of the municipal corporation that is undertaking remediation measures by separating the wet waste and sand by processing the waste in trommels.

Sisodia claimed his Aam Aadmi Party would win the MCD elections, and get rid of the mountains of garbage. “CM Arvind Kejriwal has studied the whole situation of solid waste management in the capital and prepared a blueprint to eliminate the mountains of garbage in Delhi to make the city garbage free,” the senior AAP leader said.

Sanitation is one of the primary responsibilities of the municipal corporation. The millions of tonnes of garbage at three landfills in Delhi --- Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa --- are at the centre of a political fight between the AAP and the BJP.

In August, HT had carried out an analysis based on the average clearing rate and the fresh garbage being dumped at the landfills which showed that Delhi’s garbage mountains may take up to 197 years to be cleared. While the trommel machine deployed by MCD clear the legacy waste, all three landfill sites remain currently active and continue to receive fresh waste. Delhi generates 11,120 tonnes of waste everyday of which around 45% is dumped at landfill sites.

Elections to the MCD will be held on December 4, and counting of votes will be taken up on December 7, according to the polls schedule announced by the state election commission last week. It’s a high stakes fight for both the AAP and the BJP since MCD is a key component of the city’s governance -- and in areas that touch people every day. The municipal body administers nearly 80% of Delhi’s area providing nearly as many services as the city government.

For the AAP, it will be only be the second outing at the civic polls. Despite achieving unprecedented victories in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections, the AAP failed to upstage the BJP at MCD. For the BJP, which has ruled for three consecutive terms at the MCD, the polls will be important to maintain its sway in the local political landscape after two back-to-back defeats at the assembly polls.

Continuing his attack on the BJP, the deputy chief minister said that in the upcoming MCD elections, the people of Delhi will vote to get rid of both the mountains of garbage and the BJP.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Kapoor said that the people will see through the AAP’s promises.

A spokesperson for the MCD said that the AAP has been making false claims about 16 new landfill sites in Delhi. “This false claim has already been categorically denied by the corporation earlier. MCD has already achieved the capacity to process 75% of the total municipal waste generated in Delhi every day. Further, waste segregation is picking up among the citizens which will reduce the total daily waste burden. So, there is no need for the municipal waste to go to landfill sites. With lesser demand for landfill site for dumping waste in the near future, there is no reason that new landfill site will be required. MCD requests the citizens to ignore misinformation being spread about opening of new landfill sites.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the MCD rejected the allegation that the legacy waste is being spread out to give an impression that the height of the landfill is reducing.

“The corporation finds the claim of spreading the garbage a façade to portray reduction in height of the garbage mound at Ghazipur unfortunate and rejects it completely. MCD would like to reiterate that it has already disposed of 77 lakh MT of legacy waste from three landfill sites. MCD workers and engineers have been sweating blood to flatten the landfill. Its not a façade but real work being done by MCD. The MCD would like the citizens of Delhi to be careful of such rumours and not fall prey to them.”