A fresh fire broke out at the Bandhwari landfill on Thursday, barely two months after a major blaze burned for nearly 50 hours — and before MCG could finalise action against the agency held responsible for that earlier incident.The fire was reported on the Aravali-facing side of the landfill, where municipal waste is currently being dumped. Workers said flames were spotted at the top of a waste mound shortly before the end of the night shift. “It quickly travelled down the slope,” said one worker employed by an agency tasked with processing legacy waste at the site.The first call came in at 7.30am. Six fire tenders were dispatched and the blaze was brought under control by noon, with water sprinkling continuing to douse smouldering pockets.The incident raises fresh questions about accountability at a site that has seen repeated fires despite a string of corrective measures announced after the April blaze — including round-the-clock deployment of engineering staff, continuous surveillance, hotspot monitoring and regular inspections. MCG commissioner Pradeep Dahiya had ordered stricter oversight following that incident.Yet the penalty proposed after April remains unacted upon. “A fine of Rs 5 lakh has been proposed against the agency found at fault.The file is currently under approval,” said executive engineer Sandeep Sihag, adding that preliminary findings in Thursday’s fire also point to the same agency.Environmentalist Vaishali Rana questioned the preparedness of systems MCG has repeatedly claimed are operational. “The fire reportedly started early morning and continued till noon. If MCG disputes the timeline, it should place the landfill’s CCTV footage and firefighting records in the public domain for independent verification,” Rana said.Citing an affidavit the MCG commissioner submitted before National Green Tribunal in April, she asked whether fire tenders were stationed and operational, methane detectors functioning and logged, and all 29 CCTV cameras recording continuously at the time of the fire. “MCG must answer these questions through a fresh affidavit before the next NGT hearing on July 7,” she said.Officials maintained that safety infrastructure was in place. A TOI visit found CCTV cameras at multiple locations; engineers said four handheld methane detectors were available at the site. Sihag said one fire tender from the fire department is permanently stationed at the landfill, with water tankers deployed by the two waste-processing agencies and an additional vehicle from the DLF fire station.He said that the overall situation had improved. “Since March, only two incidents have been reported and both were controlled. In earlier years, the number of fires was considerably higher,” he added.“It is like a volcano that erupts periodically. Even the April fire was ultimately extinguished only after rain,” said Bandhwari resident Sanjay Harsana.
