With the politics over “garbage mismanagement” and landfills heating up ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, senior AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia Wednesday visited the Ghazipur landfill site. Sisodia took stock of the situation at Ghazipur and nearby areas. He claimed that a portion of the wall allegedly collapsed at Bakra Mandi when the MCD took garbage out and dumped it on vacant land around the landfill. He said the three “garbage mountains” of Delhi will be cleared before the next civic polls if AAP comes to power. "BJP has ruled the MCD for the last 15 years, but what has it done to resolve the issue of landfill sites? Nothing. Now, when elections are around the corner, the BJP's MCD is trying to take waste from the top of the garbage mountain and dumping it on vacant land without even thinking about the lives of the residents, just to show that the size of the mountain has reduced," claimed Sisodia. He added, "Have you ever seen a BJP leader talking about their plan on how to flatten these garbage mountains and resolve the garbage issue? No. Instead, they were planning to create 16 more such landfill sites across the city, and convert Delhi into a dump yard. CM Arvind Kejriwal is an engineer himself, he has studied the whole situation of solid waste management in the capital, and prepared a blueprint to eliminate the mountains of garbage and make Delhi garbage-free." "They carried out this exercise of illegal dumping of wastes during the night time. Many people would have lost their lives if they had done it during the day. There is a childcare institution located in the vicinity of the wall collapse site, and a big accident was averted. This is just a conspiracy of the BJP to gain votes in the MCD polls but the people of Delhi are not happy. The BJP is answerable for the mess it has created in the last 15 years for putting the health of people at risk and turning Delhi into a garbage dump,” he alleged. The MCD denied the allegations and said, "A small portion of the wall of the waste-to-energy plant at Ghazipur broke down. Immediate action has been taken to restore the same. No portion of SLF Ghazipur has slipped or collapsed. It is safe and intact, and the work of garbage disposal is ongoing." Sisodia also talked to residents about the incident. "The MCD is meant for keeping the city clean, instead they only lie and do gundagardi. There is garbage in every nook and corner of the city with a pungent smell… We will clear all these once we come to power," he said. The Indian Express also visited the site, and found that a wall had collapsed, and a street-light pole fell on one of the shops there. "Thankfully, the incident took place at night and no one was here. Both people and goats would have been dead if the wall collapsed during daytime. The MCD is yet to remove the broken wall, and our labourers' clothes and utensils are stuck under debris," said Mohammad Khan, who works at the Bakra Mandi. Another worker, Rasool, said, "People living around here are living a life in hell. Other people have started wearing masks for the last couple of years, but we have been wearing masks since 2008, and there is no improvement."
