Garbage bomb: Three months deadline to dump waste in quarry pit ends, BBMP wonders where next?
- The three months deadline given by villagers to allow garbage into the quarry pits ends on Saturday.
- BBMP still has no plan to manage over 1,000 tonnes of daily waste if villagers stop BBMP trucks
- Local MLA Aravind Limbavali says, BBMP did the same with Mandur, forgot about the development and will do same to Mitanahalli and Bellahalli village.
FollowThe garbage issue that had been lying low for some days is all set to bounce back and send every Bengaluru resident into a tizzy. Villagers had earlier given permission to dump garbage in Mitanahalli and Bellahalli quarry pit in Byatrayanpura and Mahadevpura border for three months ends. The deadline ends this Saturday and any BBMP garbage truck entering Mitanahalli or Bellahalli will be sent back.
The villagers want their lives back and have strongly resisted the dumping of garbage in the area. With strong resistance from villagers, come Sunday, the residents who are hoping to send their daily waste into BBMP autos and push carts will be forced to keep garbage at their homes.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad and other BBMP officials who had begged for three months permission from former minister and Mahadevpura MLA Aravind Limbavali and villagers had managed to convince the villagers and enter into a memorandum. The BBMP was allowed to dump city garbage into the quarry pit, later clear it and develop the area.
"The BBMP officials had asked me to help them to get permission for three months of dumping of waste into these pits and convince them to allow for the same. I understood the Bengaluru problem and told the BBMP to use for only three months and make an alternative plan by then, but till now nothing has happened and now again they want to stretch the deadline. This is not possible as villagers are angry," said Limbavali
The BBMP has failed to give a solution to the garbage problem. The government had invested crores of rupees to set up waste processing units. Now, after a year, they realise that waste to energy is only the solution as garbage is piling up at the seven waste processing units forcing BBMP to dump its garbage into quarry pits and other areas illegally.
"Initially when we caught the BBMP truck, they agreed that the garbage was dumped illegally and later BBMP officials asked for three months time as tonnes of garbage is getting piled up at the processing units. We gave permission and every day over 200 truckloads of garbage was being dumped. Although the village had to bear the bad smell, mosquito menace, air and water contamination the time was given for BBMP to make alternate arrangements, but till now no response has come and they are all set to dump waste even after the deadline is almost over,” said Chandrasekhar, a villager close to quarry pit.
Sridhar, another villager, said there is a lake close to the dumping point, and there is every possibility of leachate (Leachate is the liquid that drains or 'leaches' from a landfill) seeping into the water. "The crops will be impacted, and village life will be affected, and hence we will not allow BBMP trucks into our village. Let BBMP commissioner, Mayor Padmavathi and all the corporators keep the waste in their homes," he said.
To this Mayor Padmavathi had previously said, "BBMP will provide good roads, health benefits and water supply in return. The villagers need not worry as the quarry pit is a safe place, and it will not allow the leachate to allow to seep into the ground. Once we complete the transfer of waste to energy plant from the existing processing plant, the entire issue related to city garbage will be put to rest."
And due to the piling up of waste at processing units and protest from villagers, the truck drivers refused to take any city waste fearing clashes. Now, from tomorrow the future looks bleak.
