Delhi LG to take up issues of road dust, smoke from trucks in Azadpur Mandi with CM in next meet

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena will take up the issue of road dust and smoke emitted by trucks plying to and from Azadpur Mandi during his next meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal amid worsening air quality in the city, Raj Niwas officials said on Wednesday.

Saxena visited Azadpur Mandi on Tuesday, following repeated requests and complaints by different stakeholders including the traders about severe lack of sanitation, public amenities, parking woes and inadequate fire safety arrangements among others.

'The most outstanding thing that came out during the visit was the prevalence of huge amount of flying road dust and smoke from trucks plying to and from the mandi. These were adding to the already alarming air quality emergency in the city. The LG said he will take up this issue with the chief minister in their next meeting,' an official said.

During the visit, Saxena saw 'overflowing sewage, open defecation, stray animals, garbage all around'. Azadpur Mandi is one of the largest in the world that witnesses movement of over 20,000 trucks and receives a footfall of over a lakh every day, the official said.

'A majority of the complaints pertained to non-removal of garbage from the mandi and acute mismanagement in parking of trucks and other smaller goods vehicles entering the market frequently. Saxena pulled up accompanying officials over the lack of toilets, roads and drinking water in the mandi premises,' the official said.

The traders in the vegetable mandi told the L-G that there was just one entry and exit for the trucks which led to severe congestion.

'They said this posed a serious threat in case of any emergency like the recent fire incidents in the mandi. Some other traders complained that the high mast lights inside the mandi were mostly non-functional and a large part of the market sinks into darkness after sunset,' the official added.

Saxena directed the officers concerned to chalk out the priorities in consultation with all stakeholders and prepare a concrete action plan within a week.

While directing the Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials to immediately clean the heaps of garbage and construction and demolition waste from the area, Saxena asked them to monitor the sanitation work and apprise the LG Secretariat about the progress of works along with the photographs. PTI SLB AS SLB AS NSD NSD