With Delhiites confronted with mounting garbage woes, the Congress on Thursday promised to stop the dumping of trash at the three already-overburdened landfills. Instead, the party said, it would start the process of reclamation if it wins the municipal elections.
Leaders visit Bhalswa site
Senior Congress leaders, including former Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken, visited the Bhalswa landfill of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday.
Mr. Ramesh said that he had tried to have the landfills reclaimed when the Congress was in power in the Centre and in Delhi, but the BJP-ruled corporations had not cooperated.
‘Will create parks’
The Congress has said that it would work towards a “zero-landfill” city by setting up segregation of waste at source. The plan would include providing households with different bins for recyclable and non-recyclable waste. Mr. Maken added that the Congress would also work to close the four landfills in the Capital within four years, creating green parks at the sites instead.
At present, Delhi produces about 9,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a year, with a large portion of this ending up at the landfills unsegregated. Though the municipal corporations have set up waste-to-energy plants and improved the processing capacity for construction waste, household waste remains largely unprocessed.
