New Delhi, Oct 4 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made a surprise visit to the Okhla landfill site on Wednesday, raising concerns over the state of waste management. During his visit, it was observed that the progress of waste disposal has fallen short of its intended target. To tackle this pressing issue, Kejriwal announced the recruitment of an additional agency aimed at accelerating waste removal efforts. Of the 18 lakh tonnes of waste originally scheduled for removal, a mere 12 lakh tonnes have been successfully cleared to date. After inspection, Kejriwal said that at the Okhla landfill site, there was a mountain of garbage of 45 lakh tonnes and on November 7 last year, the process of its removal had begun. 'We had a set target of removal of 30 lakh tonnes of garbage by May 2024. But due to some unforeseen incident, we are lagging behind the target a bit. As per the target, by now 18 lakh tonnes of garbage should have been removed, but only 12 lakh tonnes could be removed so far. "There are many plausible reasons why the target couldn't be achieved. To meet our final target, a process of hiring a new agency in addition to the previous one has been initiated. The previous agency couldn't achieve the target,' said Kejriwal. "Since there is no standing committee in the MCD as of now, a case is pending in the Supreme Court and an order is reserved. Without the standing committee, the contract couldn't be awarded to any other agency,' he said. 'As soon as the Supreme Court issues its order, the standing committee will be formed. One more agency will be involved in this process, and both the agencies will be able to meet the target of May 1024. "The Delhi government and the MCD are working diligently to remove all the mountains of garbage from Delhi. Last week we went to the Bhalswa landfill site to monitor the progress, so that Delhiites get rid of these mountains of garbage,' he added. Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi, who accompanied Kejriwal, said that continuous work is happening to make Delhi garbage-free. 'Work is ongoing 24 hours a day to eliminate these garbage hills. Three agencies will soon work on all three garbage hills simultaneously,' said Oberoi. /IANS