Rajnath Singh protests against village dumping ground

GHAZIABAD - Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and local MP Rajnath Singh along with other leaders Wednesday staged a sit-in here to protest a proposal to dump solid waste from Ghaziabad at nearby Galand village.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister staged a sit-in at the collector’s office along with leaders of other political parties to protest the dumping of waste in the village located on National Highway-24, some 15 km from here.

In his address, the BJP leader warned the state government that if public sentiment was not honoured, the new dumping site would face the same fate as Singur in West Bengal from where Tatas had to shift their Nano plant.

He added that Chief Minister Mayawati should personally intervene in the selection of the new dumping site.

Earlier, a dumping site within Ghaziabad had been selected but later it was decided to move the dumping site to Galand village.

Former Congress MP Surendra Goel alleged that out of Rs.13 crore allotted for the dumping site within Ghaziabad, the municipal corporation had already spent Rs.6 crore, and had now sanctioned the shifting of the site to the village.

The Kisan Sangharsh Samiti leaders submitted a memorandum, addressed to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, to the city magistrate demanding the immediate withdrawal of the proposal to set up a dumping ground in the village where a major power project is to come up.