Yet another fire at MC’s main garbage dumpsite

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 1

After fire raged for several days in April, another blaze was reported at the Municipal Corporation’s main garbage dumpsite near Kakka village on Thursday afternoon. A fire tender was rushed to the spot to douse the flames.

The smoke emanating from the burning waste troubled residents of nearby areas again. The civic body has yet to make arrangements to prevent frequent fire incidents at the dumpsite.

MC Health Officer Vipul Malhotra said a fire tender was rushed to the spot after getting information.

Around 30 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste accumulated at the corporation’s main dumpsite near Kakka village.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had on July 25 ordered the corporation to deposit Rs 100 crore with the District Magistrate, towards interim compensation, for its failure to comply with the solid waste management rules and other environmental norms. The order was issued during the hearing in a matter related to hut (jhuggi) fire incident near the dumpsite and accumulation of huge amount of legacy waste as the civic body has failed to comply with the waste management rules.

According to civic body officials, a project for bioremediation of 5 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste at the garbage dump site is expected to be started at the ground level this month.

Fire equipment found missing in past

During a visit to the dumpsite in April, the monitoring committee had found that fire hydrants, fire alarms and sirens were not installed. Residents of nearby areas have been complaining against frequent fire incidents at the dumpsite for a long time.

A resident, Jagjeet Singh, said: “The Municipal Corporation must make required arrangements for prevention of fire incidents at the dumpsite. It must ensure disposal of legacy waste, as per rules.”

In April, seven members of a family were charred to death in a hut (jhuggi) fire incident near the MC’s garbage dump site. Taking suo motu cognisance on a media report regarding the fire tragedy, the NGT then asked its monitoring panel to furnish a factual situation report with regard to the cause of death, persons responsible for the failure and remedial action, including a measure to prevent such incidents in future. On April 27, the monitoring panel inspected the hut fire incident site and MC’s garbage dumpsite.

Frequent incidents, mc unmoved

In April this year, fire had spread to various parts of the dumpsite and waste had kept burning for many days. In the past too, fire incidents have occurred at the dumpsite several times but the civic body has failed to take any requisite measures to avert such incidents.

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