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Reported and Written by
Lakshey Gangwani
2010
Maypuri: Defamed to Fame

Mayapuri: a story untold.
Country’s political capital is never short
of controversies, whether it be tweeting
junior ministers or our very own
“prophecy saying” chief minister, you
will always have a piece or two. Some of
these manage to tickle your funny bones,
and you end up cracking a joke about it.
But, with the recent mismanagement of
the Mayapuri Scrap market incident the
frowns, in the recycling industry, are
getting bigger than ever.
Recycling is a big business in
India, which imports as much as 3
million tons of scrap metal each year
from around the world. In these scrap
markets, you can find anything from a
dismantled scooter to worn out railway
bogies. Surprising, in scrap markets
along with the hulking heaps of steel,
copper, and other metals comes a
mountain of hazardous waste such as
asbestos, lead, mercury and, as it has
turned out, potentially deadly radioactive
materials. The scrap traders, operating
these markets, have no formal or
informal training or tool to determine if
there is any hazardous material
accompanying the metal scrap. Most of
them have inherited the business a part
of their family’s legacy. The scrap
business is ruled by an open out cry
system ensures that the best bid for scrap
wins. Mayapuri, Mina bazaar, and
Sundar Nagar provide a small shelter to
this 3 million ton scrap, which finds a
home in India.
In a shocking disclosure from a
Mina bazaar scrap dealer, the world
learnt about the trading of bomb shells
and other explosives in these scrap
markets. These live bombs were being
openly traded in and out of the market
almost everyday. With both the buyers
and the sellers unaware and unskilled to
realize what is being traded and what the
repercussion can be. Shockingly, the
dealer, from the Mina bazaar scrap
market, also discloses that, in the past,
explosions had taken place not only in
Mina Bazaar, but also in the Sundar
Nagar area of north-east Delhi with the
police and the administration being well
aware of these explosions. But, none of
them cared to flex a muscle to figure out
the source of these explosive materials
and their probable entry route into these
scrap markets. Moreover, he is not the
only one who is trying to ring the Alarm
bells for the administration. Even Indian
Institute of Management, Lucknow

recently conducted a study and
determined that only half of the 400,000
kilograms of hospital waste that India
generates each day is treated before its
disposal. Toxic Links1
, an NGO, also
estimates that as much as 50,000 tons of
electronic waste is illegally imported
each month, bringing with it lead,
mercury, cadmium, beryllium and other
hazardous materials, while Indian
industry generates 6 million or 7 million
tons of hazardous waste per year.
With all such wastes making its
entry into these scrap markets, it was a
disaster waiting to happen, and it is only
some kind of divine blessing that a
major accident had not happened till
April 7, 2010. The day turned out to be
the perfect pooper for the Indian
recycling industry, when the reports of a
shop owner Deepak Jain and four others
being hospitalized with radiation
sickness started circulating. Each of
them being exposed to a bright and
shining metal object, being traded as
scrap. Subsequent investigations
identified the radioactive material as
Cobalt 60 — a metal used in the
sterilization of medical equipment and
for radiotherapy. It was only a matter of
1
Visit http://www.toxicslink.org/
time and 11 more sources of
radioactivity were reported in and
around the Mayapuri scrap market.
Soon, we had everyone form
Mrs. Dixit to the health minister Kiran
Walia come out yet again with a long list
of promises to ensure a screening and
treatment of the entire area and each
individual that might have come in
contact. Teams from Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre (BARC) were rushed to
the spot and all radioactive sources were
sealed to make sure that the people had
their trust back in the administration of
Delhi. The entire country had a sigh of
relief and believed that the matter was
under control. But, behind the glitzy
interviews, the truth remains far from
being told. The bottom line still remains
untouched with plans and promises no
where near to an execution. When our
team of reporters visited the Mayapuri
market on a quite Sunday evening, the
environment said it all. You could see
people, with densely wrinkled fore
heads, still confused about what had
happened. The only thing they knew was
that black nails or skin meant they were
to a part of the maledicted story. Their
expressions said it all, and so did their
words. When they needed the

administration to perform swift actions,
they were left prey to “TRP seeking”
journalists, those who convinced them
into portraying a kin to the affected, in
return of a lame promise of spreading
their words to the world. Most of these
people made their television debuts
saying, what was scripted and what
would really strike a cord with the
millions of people out there. As they
have learnt on many other occasions, the
media world can be ruthless and highly
capitalistic.
By the late evening, when all the
dust had settled and the media glitz had
died, these people were long forgotten.
This is when their agitation and
frustration resulted in the truth being
told, beyond what has been shown by the
paparazzi.
When we approached shop
number DII-32, where the first pin made
of radioactive Cobalt 60 was discovered,
we were shocked to see the shop only
being shuttered and being guarded by
just a hap hazard arrangement of stack of
Delhi Police barricades forgotten against
the wall. The arrangement was so fragile
that it could be disturbed by a few rather
careless and curious minds. People were
carelessly walking around the area, street
dogs drinking from a little pot hole right
in front of the shop. No security guards,
armed men, medical team to avoid any
accidental or deliberate catastrophe.
We had not even recovered from
the shock, when two rather skinny men
appeared on a roof covering DII-31 and
DII-32. Our team wanted to believe that
these were the personnel responsible for
protecting the area, but we had a heads
on collision with disappointment. Our
shock turned into a nightmare, when
these guys exclaimed that they have
been working as rickshaw pullers for
DII-32 for all this time and have been
living on the top of the roof for years
now. There description of the material
and casing assured us that they weren’t
lying. We were almost taken aback when
we learnt that they have been living
there, right from the day this started. No
medical attention, no screening, and no
instruction to move out from there. All

they knew were that the fingers or body
parts should not turn black. They looked
rather puzzled with the shock and awe
on our faces, may be they had already
started to believe that this incident is
over.
The conditions in Mayapuri are
rather dismay, given that this is already
turning out to be the biggest radio active
exposure in the capital’s history. The
administration still seems to be waiting
for a bigger alarm bell, and is turning a
deaf ear to all those resided in the area.
As for the people of Mayapuri, their
future remains uncertain and dark, as
there seems to be no immediate respite
for them

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Maypuri

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