North body begins night vigils to check dumping of debris

STRICT ACTION The civic commissioner deploys 30-40 officers in each of six zones for patrolling

NEWDELHI: Cracking down on illegal dumping of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, the North Delhi municipal corporation (North MCD) has deputed officers on night vigil to check the menace and penalise truck owners who deposit malba (debris) on roadsides.

The civic agency’s commissioner, Varsha Joshi, has designated at least 30-40 officers in each of the six zones — City SP, Karol Bagh, Keshavpuram, Narela, Civil Lines and Rohini — of north municipality “to patrol stretches/sites where illegal dumping is frequently seen” between 11pm and 4 am.

Already, two trucks have been seized at Ram Nagar in Paharganj area since Thursday, and such vehicles are being fined ₹4000₹5000 per tonne of the malba they are dumping illegally. This action is taken under sections 357, 397 and 398 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act that prohibits accumulation of rubbish.

The corporation is taking help from the Delhi Government’s Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi traffic police personnel as well.

“Illegal C&D dumping is a huge problem for us,” Varsha Joshi said, adding, “Fugitive dust from the deposits is not just responsible for air pollution but the debris choke drains and leads to waterlogging when it rains. The committee set NGT for clean Yamuna, led by retired judicial member Bikram Sajwan and former Delhi chief secretary Shailja Chandra, has also been emphasising on tough action against illegal debris dumpers in the meetings with us,” she said.

An IIT Kanpur study from 2016, titled ‘Air Pollution Source Apportionment’, attributed 26%