Delhi BJP workers stage protest against CM Arvind Kejriwal ahead of his visit to Ghazipur landfill site
A report of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has said that the city generates around 11,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day. Of this, around 5,000 tonnes is processed and the rest (6,000 tonnes per day or 21.6 lakh tonnes a year) ends up at the three landfill sites.
FollowSeveral BJP workers on Thursday staged a protest with black flags and slogans against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as the battle over upcoming elections reached one of the national capital's largest garbage dumps, the saturated landfill at Ghazipur.
AAP workers also countered with slogans against the protesting BJP workers, which ran the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for over a decade before all three MCD divisions were dissolved to make one unified body. Elections to the unified MCD are likely to be held by the end of this year or in early 2023.
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BJP workers were seen hitting their chests and stomping AAP flags. They also laid the flags out on the road and landed blows on them with sticks.Â
In retaliation, AAP workers also began to beat their chests and sloganeered, "BJP, murdabad".
The AAP has made sanitation the central issue, pointing towards the landfill sites — "mountains of garbage" — as standout signs of the BJP's alleged failure. Kejriwal's visit is part of building on that.
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The BJP argues that the AAP government in Delhi is "lying" and has not given due funds to the municipalities. It has vowed to clear the landfill sites ahead of the MCD polls.
The clash between the two parties is getting sharper with Gujarat assembly elections around the corner, where AAP is hoping to challenge an entrenched BJP. With a demand to put images of Hindu deities on currency notes, CM Kejriwal also made an apparent bid for the BJP's core Hindutva vote yesterday.
However, dates for the Gujarat assembly elections aren't formally out yet.
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In 2017, the BJP won the erstwhile south, north, and east Delhi municipal corporations. In the now-unified MCD, the number of seats has been fixed at 250.
A report of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has said that the city generates around 11,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day. Of this, around 5,000 tonnes is processed and the rest (6,000 tonnes per day or 21.6 lakh tonnes a year) ends up at the three landfill sites.
Government data further shows that less than a fifth of the existing waste at the three landfill sites — Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa — has been processed since the project to flatten the mountains of garbage started in October 2019.
