AAP Promises To Remove "Mountains Of Garbage" If It Wins Delhi Civic Polls

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said people will vote for the AAP in the upcoming municipal polls to clear the "garbage of the BJP" and if the Arvind Kejriwal-led party comes to power in the MCD, it will make the "mountains" of trash disappear from the city in five years.

Manish Sisodia said this while interacting with reporters after visiting the Ghazipur landfill site in east Delhi.

Just to show that the height of the Ghazipur landfill has come down, the BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has taken garbage from it and dumped it in nearby areas, he alleged, adding that the saffron party lacks the intention to solve the problem.

There was no immediate reaction from the MCD or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

People will vote for "jhadu" (the poll symbol of the Aam Aadmi Party) in the December 4 MCD election to clear the "garbage of the BJP for a clean Delhi", Mr Sisodia said.

Chief Minister Kejriwal himself is an engineer and makes meticulous plans, he said, adding that a plan has also been made to clear these "mountains of garbage" and the trash piled up in others parts of Delhi.

If the AAP comes to power in the MCD, "all mountains of garbage in Delhi will disappear in five years, we have a plan", Mr Sisodia said when asked about a timeline.

Talking to reporters at the site, the deputy chief minister reiterated the AAP's allegation that "16 new landfill sites have been planned", a claim that has been vehemently denied by the MCD.

Mr Sisodia took a round of the area on the periphery of the Ghazipur landfill site and spoke to some locals, who shared their troubles with him -- the problem of clean drinking water and a pungent smell emanating out of the landfill.

"Do not worry. Bring the AAP in the MCD too and we will address all the problems of people," he said.

Asked about the BJP's accusation that the AAP is showing disrespect to sanitation workers with its politics over garbage, Mr Sisodia said the saffron party has been ruling the MCD for nearly 15 years and the sanitation workers have suffered under it due to pending salaries and other issues. When the AAP comes to power in the civic body, it will give them salaries on time and also make their lives better, he asserted.

Mr Sisodia was accompanied by the AAP's MCD polls in-charge Durgesh Pathak.

Mr Pathak accused the BJP on Tuesday of trying to "widen the spread of the garbage at the Ghazipur landfill site" and alleged that "a huge part of the garbage mountain fell on the houses of those living in the nearby areas".

Rejecting the claim, the MCD issued a statement on Tuesday, saying, "A false information is doing the rounds that a part of the garbage mountain in Ghazipur collapsed. A small portion of the wall of the Waste-to-Energy plant at Ghazipur collapsed and immediate action has been taken to restore the same." Politics over the landfill sites is heating up ahead of the December 4 civic polls in the national capital.

The BJP has been in power in the MCD -- trifurcated in 2012 into north, south and east corporations and then unified this year -- for three straight terms. The high-stakes civic polls are largely being seen as a three-way contest among the AAP, the BJP and the Congress.

Delhi has turned into a "dumping yard" in the last 15 years of the BJP's tenure in the MCD, AAP leader Atishi said on Tuesday as her party launched the "Kude Par Jansamvad" campaign ahead of the civic body polls.

At a public meeting in Kalkaji, Atishi said the MCD polls are not about political parties, but about the concerns of people and whether their localities are kept clean.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)