BJP-led municipality lying on height of Bhalswa landfill: AAP leader

NEW DELHI: The BJP-led north municipal corporation claims it has decreased the height of the Bhalswa landfill by 12 feet, but in reality, it has not reduced by a single inch, senior AAP leader Durgesh Pathak alleged on Thursday.

Spread over 40 acres, the Bhalswa landfill site had exhausted its lifespan in 2006.

Rising over 50 metres, beyond the permissible height of 20 metres, it is visible from far away.

Rubbishing the allegation levelled by Pathak, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said it seems Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal provides "special training to his party leaders and spokespersons to sell lies".

Mayor of North Delhi, Jai Prakash, said the Aam Aadmi Party was spreading confusion over garbage in Delhi.

During a briefing, Pathak alleged that though the BJP-led corporation claims it is using Rs 5 crore a month for clearing the landfill and reducing its height, it has not reduced by a single inch.

The North MCD mayor lied to the people last month by saying that the corporation has decreased the height of the Bhalswa landfill by 12 feet, he said.

"In Delhi, the BJP-ruled municipal corporations have destroyed the beauty of the city. If you enter the city from either Uttar Pradesh, Haryana or Rajasthan, the first thing you will see are garbage mountains or landfills which are proof of failures of the BJP-led MCDs," Pathak charged.

The national capital has three municipal corporations – NDMC, SDMC and the EDMC – and all are BJP led.

"Without doing any work just for one landfill the BJP is spending Rs 5 crore every month and the whole money is going into their (acts of) corruption. The people of Delhi are really anxious about such corruption. But the people of Delhi will respond to this corruption of the BJP in the upcoming municipal elections by voting them out," the AAP leader said.

Pathak said the AAP will join a sit-in of municipal corporation workers from Monday at the Civic Centre.

The workers are on strike over non-payment of salaries for the last few months.

He said that the BJP should immediately release their salaries.

BJP spokesperson Kapoor charged that Kejriwal's party leader Durgesh Pathak's statement on the Bhalswa landfill site is a new bunch of lies.

"Pathak has said that the NDMC is spending Rs 5 crores a month to reduce the height of the landfill while the truth is the corporation's total monthly expense on trashing activities is Rs.90 lakh a month on 15 trommel machines," he said.

As for their claim that height is not reducing, as recently as in July 2020, North DMC had shown that the height of the Bhalswa dump is going down, he said.

In a statement, NDMC mayor Prakash said the Aam Aadmi Party was spreading confusion among Delhiites regarding garbage in the city.

He said the North DMC had installed 15 trommel machines at the Bhalswa landfill site in October last year which are disposing 4,500 metric tonnes of waste per day, and soon, three more trommel machines will be installed.