Vacant plots become dumps across city

NEW DELHI: It is hard to say what this plot on Rani Jhansi Road was meant for, but for 10 years it has been used only as a garbage dump. Businessmen at the furniture market here say they have learnt to live with the stinking eyesore after years of futile complaints to civic agencies. “We complained to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as well as the Delhi Development Authority, but they weren’t bothered,” said Kuldeep Singh, chief of Rani Jhansi Road traders’ welfare association. It’s the same story at many vacant plots across the city. Plots left undeveloped by owners are used to dump waste, and end up as magnets for stray dogs, cows and worse.

While the civic bodies washed their hands off the matter saying that these plots belong to DDA, DDA officials said the plots used as dumps had ceased to be their responsibility once they were sold “Mosquitoes and flies breed in the unattended garbage. The stench becomes unbearable each time it rains. No civic agency is ready to take responsibility even as diseases like dengue and chikungunya are spreading,” said Ajit Singhal, a shopkeeper in the Laxmi Nagar market, where there are two such plots.Municipal corporation officials shrug off the responsibility, saying most of these plots belong to DDA. “Sanitation is our responsibility, but we cannot go and clean properties that are not with us. We clean roads and other public utilities, but these are private properties so how can we clean them?” said a corporation official of North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

DDA officials said the plots used as dumps had ceased to be their responsibility when they were sold. Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the third agency that could possibly take action for burning garbage and dried leaves, says that it will look into the matter. “We have written to all agencies, telling them that open burning of garbage is not permitted, but it appears that private persons have been dumping the garbage and then setting it on fire. We will see what can be done,” said an official.