AAP slams BJP for proposed landfill site in NE Delhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

AAP leader and party’s candidate for the North East Lok Sabha constituency Dilip Pandey today said he will file a fresh application challenging the  Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and East Delhi Municipal Corproration (EDMC) move to set up a new landfill site on 42 acre at Gonda Gujran.

Pandey, who is one of the petitioners in the ongoing case before the National Green Tribunal regarding the allocation of land near Sonia Vihar and Gonda Gujran in North East Delhi, criticised the Central government’s decision to allow a landfill site near a densely populated area in the Yamuna floodplains and demanded to know the stand of Delhi BJP chief and North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari on the proposed landfill.

The AAP leader’s reaction came on reports that 42.5 acre has been allotted to EDMC for setting up a new landfill site in North East Delhi.

“This is a clear violation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. Nearby areas like Sonia Vihar, West Karawal Nagar, Sabhapur Village, Ankur Vihar, etc., will be destroyed if this foolish move is allowed,” Pandey said.

He said this move also violates the order of the NGT dated March 9, 2016, in which the NGT had clearly directed the DDA that it cannot allot land for a landfill site without the tribunal’s permission.

Pandey alleged the Central government's agencies are lying that National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) had cleared the proposed landfill at this spot. “NEERI report is merely about the land status and nothing else,” Pandey added.

He also cited a 1996 Supreme Court judgment to state that a landfill site cannot come up at the land allotted by the DDA that ruled that any environmental degradation is enough to deny a landfill site.