Landfill sites full,need DDA nod for new sites: Govt

With the three landfill sites in the city full to the brim and every resident continuing to account for at least half-a-kilogram of municipal waste everyday,Delhi is staring at a sanitation crisis.

The Delhi government has informed the Delhi High Court that it has identified,in consultation with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD),three new landfill sites on GT Karnal Road near Hamirpur village in Narela zone; on the Main Bakhtawarpur Road near Palla village; and,another site near Palla village on the Delhi-Haryana border.

Stating this in an affidavit filed in court,Delhi government standing counsel Najmi Waziri informed Justice Hima Kohli that a request for handing these sites to MCD has already been made to the DDA and a reminder was sent in the third week of August.

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The Delhi government does not have either the requisite or the appropriate land to allot to MCD for disposal of municipal solid waste and is therefore dependent on DDA for handing over the identified areas, the affidavit stated. It mentioned that the MCD had demanded more land to process 400 metric tonnes of solid waste which is generated daily.

Earlier,the MCD was denied permission to use the Bhatti mines in South Delhi as a landfill site. So the civic agency has been using the existing,packed sites at the risk of life and property.

Unhappy with the delay,Justice Kohli said the DDA must inform the court about its stand in the next four weeks,otherwise it shall be presumed that DDA has no objection to any of the three sites being acceptable.

The court said that if the DDA has any objection to the three sites,it must state which other land is available for disposal of municipal solid waste in the zonal plans.

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The MCD has said that the existing sites at Ghazipur in East Delhi,Bhalswa-Jahangirpuri in North and Okhla in South were exhausted a long time ago but it was forced to dump garbage due to non-availability of alternate sites.

Contending that Delhi produced 9,200 tonnes of waste every day which will go up to 19,100 tonnes by 2024,the MCD stated that while the Master Plan 2021 provided for 1500 acres to cater to the needs of next 20 years,the DDA and the government had allotted only 10 per cent,i.e. 150 acres of land to it till date.

On an earlier occasion,the MCD sought permission to use four of the 200 abandoned pits in Bhatti mines near Chhatarpur in South Delhi for dumping waste. But the government opposed the move,saying it would adversely affect the wildlife habitat and contaminate ground water.

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