The east Delhi civic body on Friday moved an application urging NGT to issue urgent directions to the DDA to hand over new sites for landfill operations.
The saturation of the Ghazipur landfill site and non-availability of alternative land to manage garbage has prompted the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to move the National Green Tribunal (NGT) again.
The east Delhi civic body on Friday moved an application urging NGT to issue directions to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to hand over a 130-acre piece of land at Sonia Vihar and a 50-acre plot at Ghonda Gurjan for solid waste management facilities on a priority basis.
A senior official in EDMC told City Spidey that NGT has directed the DDA to file its reply before April 23. As per the official report, during the hearing, EDMC said the two pieces of land were approved and apprised by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and they should be handed over to the corporation for handling municipal solid waste.
The EDMC also argued that the only available site in EDMC jurisdiction – Ghazipur landfill – has been fully saturated since 2000. Yet, it continues to get up to 1600 metric tonnes of the state’s waste on a daily basis even after 17 years of the scheduled closer.
“This is an alarming situation since the gases trapped in the site are a ticking time bomb which, in case of an explosion, will result in cataclysmic repercussions for thousands of people living in close proximity to the site,” a plea filed by EDMC read.
Last September, two young people had lost their lives due to a landslide at the site, where the height of the waste has risen up to 65 meters, about 40 meters more than the prescribed limit, the plea read.
