After Ghazipur landfill fire, NGT asks Delhi govt to convene meeting of stakeholders to avoid similar incidents

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has directed the Delhi chief secretary to convene a meeting of stakeholders to ensure that the landfill sites in the city do not catch fire and add to pollution. [caption id=“attachment_4001369” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Ghazipur landfill site where a collapse took place in September. PTI[/caption] A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the chief secretary to visit the landfill sites and come up with constructive measures so that they do not catch fire in future. The direction came in the wake of a major fire that broke out at the Ghazipur landfill site in East Delhi on 19 and 20 October which was extinguished after hours of fire-fighting operations. “We make it clear that all stakeholders ie chief secretary, secretary of urban development, commissioners of all the corporations, senior scientist from the environment ministry, urban development, Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi Development Authority and Delhi Pollution Control Committee shall hold a meeting on Saturday positively at 11 am and if the chief secretary needs he may invite professors from IIT Delhi or from Delhi College of Engineering,” the bench said. The green panel also made it clear that the matter with regard to compliance of the order of the tribunal for stopping “use, storage and sale” of plastic in the city would be taken on 30 October, the next date of hearing. During the proceedings, the Commissioner of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, special secretary of Urban Development and officers of fire department assured the bench that they would take effective steps to control fire incidents. The NGT had earlier said that except shifting blame, the authorities had no prudent answer as to why there have been incidents of fire at the landfill site at Ghazipur which had seriously affected the ambient air quality of Delhi. It had said that emissions from such fire which emits from mixed waste of all kinds including plastic generates carcinogenic gases. The NGT had witnessed a war of words between the Delhi government and the EDMC over the Ghazipur blaze.