Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal office on Monday issued a statement that work was already under way to address the problem of garbage mounds.
This came four days after the Supreme Court castigated Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal for claiming he was “superman” as “mountains of garbage” in the Capital were about to climb higher than the Qutub Minar.
‘A challenging task’
A statement issued by Raj Niwas said that the problem of garbage mounds was a “legacy problem of six decades” and multiple issues have made it a “challenging task”. Mr. Baijal, the statement said, was regularly reviewing and monitoring garbage disposal plans and actions of the municipal corporations for management of “legacy” mounds and processing of daily waste generated “site specific challenges” and the imminent requirement of remediation of these huge mounds.
“As a result of intensive and continuous monitoring by the Lieutenant-Governor through site visits and regular meetings and the directions and guidance given, work is already under way to address these problems in a time-bound manner in a comprehensive and sustainable way,” the statement stated. On Thursday, the apex court had admonished the L-G for the garbage piles dotting the Capital, saying rubbish heaps at dumping sites are all set to cross the height of the Qutub Minar and yet the L-G continues to claim he is “superman”.
‘Absolutely bizarre’
Terming the situation in Delhi as “absolutely bizarre” the Supreme Court had referred to the “mountains of garbage” at three landfill sites located in Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa saying there was a 65-metre mound at Ghazipur which was “only eight metre less than the historic Qutub Minar”.
The Raj Niwas statement submitted that immediately after assuming office Mr. Baijal visited all the three landfill sites and Construction and Demolition Waste Plants (C&D Waste) at Burari and Shastri Park. According to the statement, all projects at landfill sites that are under way will be completed by August 2020 and after completion of these three projects, it was expected that no untreated garbage would be dumped at the landfill sites.
In relation to the Okhla Landfill site, the LG office said that with accumulated garbage of 60 lakh MT the landfill site is spread over 32 acres. The site which is in operation since 1996 was saturated in 2008.
“Under guidance of project team from IIT Delhi, SDMC has started remediation process, and as on date, about 30-40% of the slope stabilisation has been achieved. The balance slope profiling and engineered closure will be completed by July 2019,” it stated.
It also said that Ghazipur landfill site is the oldest with accumulated garbage of over 140 lakh MT and spread over 70 acres of area, adding that suitable land at Ghonda Gujran and Sonia Vihar has been identified. The EDMC has roped in GAIL to flare the 34 cubic metre landfill gas. Final closure is expected to take 12 to 18 months, it added.
