Two persons, including a woman, were killed when a portion of a ‘trash mountain’ in Delhi’s Ghazipur area crashed this evening.
According to police, the collapsed mound's debris swept away a car and a two-wheeler, along with their riders, into the nearby Kondli canal. The woman was riding on the two-wheeler.
"The woman's body has been recovered. Another two-wheeler rider who also fell into the canal has since been rescued. About four-five vehicles are reportedly trapped under the debris," the police official said.
The Delhi Fire Service (DFS), which got a call about the accident around 2.45 pm, sent four-five JCB machines for rescue operations. A National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team comprising 45 personnel was also pressed into the rescue operations.
"We have taken out five people from the canal and rushed them to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital here," a DFS official said.
The incident took place close to the Delhi-UP border gate on National Highway 24.
East Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Neema Bhagat blamed the Delhi government for what she said was 'poor maintenance' of the landfill spread over 70 acres.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia went to the accident spot and blamed the BJP-ruled municipal corporation for the accident.
"Visited Ghazipur site. It's man-made disaster. Criminal. Mountains of garbage. Why doesn't MCD use modern technology to manage solid waste?" Kejriwal said in a tweet.
AAP MLA from Kondli, Manoj Kumar, also blamed the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), saying the civic body did not pay attention to the increasing height of the dumped waste at the site due to which the pile collapsed.
"Had the MCD not let the height of the waste material increase above its optimum level, the incident would not have happened," Kumar said.
