Congress to protest proposal to establish landfill site at Maidan Garhi village

Even as the existing sanitary landfill sites in the city are overflowing with garbage, the Congress has decided to protest the proposal of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to establish a sanitary landfill site at the Maidan Garhi village in South Delhi.

Questioning the proposed location for garbage dumping, the Congress leaders said the decision would impact the health of lakhs of residents living in the vicinity.

“If a landfill site was established there, it will terribly affect lakhs of residents living in nearby colonies, housing societies, resettlement colonies and villages. Moreover, the proposed landfill site is near the IGNOU and SAARC campuses. It would also have environmental ramifications as it would affect the nearby ridge area,” said Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma.

Senior leaders of the Delhi Congress also joined a maha panchayat held at the Maidan Garhi village in South Delhi’s Chattarpur Assembly constituency on Saturday where the residents decided to launch agitation against the proposal of the civic body.

Apart from Maidan Garhi, the South Corporation was also offered a tentative list of five sites comprising a 450-acre plot in Bhati Mines, 60 acres near Okhla SLF, 30 acres in Tajpur Jaitpur Pahari, 150 acres in Ghitorni and 100 acres in Mandi village. However, these sites were rejected due to varied reasons.

The city is in urgent need of few alternative sanitary landfill sites as the existing ones at Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalaswa are already overflowing with garbage. The civic bodies have been using the existing landfills even after the Delhi Pollution Control Committee banned dumping of garbage there.

The city produces 9,000 metric tonnes of waste every day, which is estimated to double to 18,000 metric tonnes per day in the next seven years. The three existing landfills cover an area of 164 acres, when the current requirement is nearly four times this area – 650 acres.

The authorities have so far failed to establish even one alternative landfill site despite strictures from courts.