Mayors of North Delhi and East Delhi today accused Arvind Kejriwal government of politicising garbage fires at Bhalaswa and Ghazipur landfill sites to "hide the failure" of odd-even car rationing scheme in the city.
The mayors of BJP-ruled NDMC and EDMC claimed that the fires at the landfill sites were due to natural emission of methane emitted by garbage lying there.
"Landfill fire is a natural phenomenon and it is faced not only by India but also by developed countries. At Bhalaswa landfill site also, fire is a usual occurrence," NDMC mayor Ravinder Gupta said.
"It is not the fire at landfill site which concerns the Chief Minister but the badly failed odd-even scheme which has failed to bring down pollution," he said.
East Delhi Mayor Harshdeep Malhotra said incidents of fire at Ghazipur landfill site under EDMC were "negligible" to cause any significant contribution to air pollution in the city.
"Such fires occur due to burning of methane produced by massive garbage pile. The burning could be natural as well as man-made. It is not that the whole landfill site is on fire, just a negligible portion which is controlled by EDMC employees as soon as it is noticed," he said.
Regarding instructions by the state Environment Minister for filing of FIR against the two civic bodies, Malhotra quipped that he should also consider an FIR on "noise pollution" caused by Kejriwal's regular appearance on TV channels "complaining" against others.
Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain who visited the Bhalaswa site today, where simmering fire have been reported for over a week now, said he had instructed the DPCC to file an FIR and impose fresh penalties on the MCDs.
