Mudslinging between the two parties on the first day of AAP’s ‘Kude Pe Jansamvad’; Delhi’s landfills a source of shame, says Atishi; landfill in Punjab’s Ludhiana taller than Qutub Minar: BJP
Mudslinging between the two parties on the first day of AAP’s ‘ Kude Pe Jansamvad’; Delhi’s landfills a source of shame, says Atishi; landfill in Punjab’s Ludhiana taller than Qutub Minar: BJP
The politics over garbage management, in the run-up to the civic polls, intensified in the national capital with AAP starting its “ Kude Pe Jansamvad” (public discussion over garbage) campaign on Tuesday. As part of the campaign, AAP aims to reach out to people in all the 13,682 booths in the city by November 20 to highlight the BJP’s “mismanagement” of garbage. In response, the BJP accused AAP of turning Punjab into a “dumpster”.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had last month announced that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, scheduled for December 4, will be fought on the issues of garbage and cleanliness.
Inaugurating her party’s campaign in Kalkaji on Tuesday, AAP MLA Atishi said, “This MCD election is about the people of Delhi. It is about the problems of our gully-mohallas; whether they will be cleaned [by the municipality] over the next five years.”
Referring to the three landfills, Ms. Atishi said the three “garbage mountains of the BJP” have become symbols of shame for Delhiites.
“A person coming to Delhi from Punjab is greeted by the Bhalswa landfill, while those coming from Uttar Pradesh see the Ghazipur landfill. People coming here from Haryana are greeted by the Okhla landfill,” she said. Ms. Atishi asked the people to bring the “Kejriwal Model” to the MCD.
‘Look at Punjab first’
Taking AAP head-on over the issue of garbage, BJP Delhi chief Adesh Gupta said a landfill in Tajpur in Punjab’s Ludhiana district is taller than the Qutub Minar. “While the Punjab government is thinking of what to do with that garbage, we have already started a waste-to-energy plant in Delhi,” he said.
“Instead of claiming to do big things in Delhi, they should fix the garbage issue in Punjab. There are heaps of garbage everywhere in Jalandhar, because of which it was ranked below 150 in the recent cleanliness survey,” he said, referring to the Swachh Survekshan 2022 in which Jalandhar was ranked 154th among 382 cities in the country.
