The Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, visited the Okhla landfill site to assess the status of waste management, on Wednesday, and found that the work of waste disposal was lagging behind its target.
In response, Kejriwal announced the hiring of another agency to expedite waste removal. So far, 18 lakh tonnes of waste were supposed to be removed from here, but only 12 lakh tonnes have been cleared, he said.
During this visit to the Okhla landfill site, Delhi’s mayor, Dr Shelly Oberoi; deputy mayor, Aaley Mohammad, and senior MCD officers were present.
After inspecting the Okhla landfill site, Kejriwal said there was a mountain of garbage of 45 lakh tonnes. On November 7, 2022, he had said the process of removal of this garbage mountain had started.
“We had a set target of removal of garbage of 30 lakh tonnes by May 2024. But due to some unforeseen incident, we are lagging behind the target a bit. As per the target, by now, 18 lakh tonnes of garbage should have been removed, but only 12 tonnes of garbage could be removed,” Kejriwal said.
He then added, “There are many plausible reasons why the target couldn’t be achieved. To meet our final target, a process of hiring a new agency in addition to the previous one has been initiated, but the previous agency couldn’t achieve the target.”
The CM said the process of hiring a second agency is almost complete. However, he said the delay was due to the non-formation of the MCD standing committee in the MCD.
Kejriwal said the matter of forming the standing committee is in the Supreme Court. Once the court’s order is received, the committee will be constituted, and the second agency will be hired, he said.
Kejriwal said both agencies working together will achieve the goal of removing 30 lakh tons of waste by May 2024.