Waste from Delhi dumped on our site, claims Ghaziabad corpn; MCD denies

According to the FIR: “The Municipal Corporation Ghazia-bad had entered into a five-year agreement on (June 24, 2022) with Geron Engineering Pvt. Ltd… Under the contract, the contractor has the right to collect, segregate and dispose of garbage located only within the limits of Municipal Corporation Ghazi-abad… (and not) any other area or state. A processing ground has been set up at Morta to dispose of the corporation’s waste. On (June 30)… secret information (was received) that the said company was cheating Municipal Corpo-ration of Ghaziabad.”

It added that when the mayor, councillor and a former councillor went to the spot around 10.30 am, they found some vehicles with ‘MCD’ written on them. “On enquiry, their drivers said they have been bringing garbage from Delhi and dumping it at the corporation’s processing ground in Morta for the last three months. They also said (this) is being done as per directions of Geron,” the FIR said.

Geron CEO Ankit Aggarwal, however, said the firm has done nothing wrong and that the trucks were carrying Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) from Delhi landfill sites to private land in Bahadarpur, Ghaziabad. “The trucks were not carrying any solid waste… We have a waste-to-energy plant in Dasna, but there was not enough space to store the RDF. So we took private land on rent in Bahadarpur, where RDF was being dumped for the last 4-5 days,” he added.

Aggarwal also said he has the right to bring raw material from any part of the country as per norms, so no illegality is made out in the case: “We have all records related to the movement of the trucks… the GPS data, payment slips, approval documents. We will place all these files before the authority.”
However, Mayor Dayal Saturday said the firm is responsible for bringing waste from another state and appropriate action will be taken against it. She said: “I went to Morta to look at the waste disposal process… (and) saw many trucks, which bore markings of ‘MCD’ — Municipal corporation of Delhi — throwing garbage. We immediately stopped them… Eight trucks were impounded at the pipeline police outpost and three at Nandgram police station.”

“Even if it is RDF, is it not waste? The site has become a ‘hill of garbage’. Why is Ghaziabad a place to store garbage of other states? We are in the process of sending a letter to the Delhi municipal commissioner to seek a reply as to why we should not file a complaint against the MCD. We will also ask them to take away their garbage from the site. If the MCD does not listen to us, we will approach the Delhi L-G,” Dayal told The Indian Express.

A Ghaziabad municipal corporation official said an inquiry has been ordered and two corporation officials have been issued show-cause notices following the seizure of the trucks. Meanwhile, the MCD in a statement claimed none of its vehicles were used in RDF transfer to Ghaziabad: “The MCD has awarded an integrated contract for bio-mining of legacy waste at the dumpsites of Bhalswa and Ghazipur… Contractors in-charge of bio-mining and segregated waste disposal have made plans to dispose of RDF at a waste-to-energy facility in Ghaziabad. MCD is not dumping any waste in Ghaziabad, and no MCD vehicles have been used.”

The FIR has been registered under IPC sections 420 (cheating) among others and sections of the Environment Protection Act, 1986.