Government to come up with landfill management policy

The government is working on guidelines for the management of landfill sites and will soon come up with a policy on it, environment secretary CK Mishra said. The development assumes significance, after the cave-in incident at the Ghazipur landfill site in east Delhi, in which two persons were killed, triggering a debate on safety concerns and waste management. Mishra said the policy will address the concerns raised after the Ghazipur incident. A part of the massive dump had caved-in, in September 2017, prompting the Lt Governor to order the site for waste dumping to shut. The Ghazipur landfill is the oldest of its kind in the national capital. It was started in 1984 and is spread over 29 acres. According to officials, the permissible height for a garbage dump is 20 metres. Every day, 2,500 metric tonnes of garbage are disposed at the site. Following the incident, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and IIT-Delhi had joined hands, to work on measures to stabilise the Ghazipur landfill, for a period of one year. The other major dumping sites in the city are in Okhla in south Delhi and Narela-Bawana in north-west Delhi. After the cave-in incident, leader of Congress in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation Mukesh Goel, had hit out at the BJP-led corporation and said the ‘situation of Bhalswa site is explosive’ and if the waste dumping was not stopped there, there would be protests. East Delhi mayor Neema Bhagat said the 45-metre-high landfill at Ghazipur was saturated in 2002 and the civic body has been ‘looking for an alternative site for a long time but a clearance from the NGT is needed’.