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Villagers in Bengaluru outskirts at risk as BBMP fails to deal with garbage, fuel

  •  BBMP’s seven waste processing units in Bengaluru’s outskirts are sitting on an RDF bomb with over 10 lakh tonnes of harmful fuel there.
  •  Yet the BBMP has no clue on what to do with the existing stock that is being piled by up by the day.
Villagers in Bengaluru outskirts at risk as BBMP fails to deal with garbage fuel

 

The BBMP’s problem will increase manifold as its waste processing unit is filled with over 10 lakh tonnes of refuse derived fuel. Earlier there were talks of sending the fuel to brick factories in Gulbarga but the BBMP could not afford the transportation cost, so as a result, 10 lakh tonnes of dangerous RDF has piled up leaving no place to accommodate 3.5 thousand tonnes of everyday City garbage.

 

Mohan Raj, a member of the Kannahalli Village Panchayat said, “BBMP promised that there will be no smell as the processing will be done in a closed unit but till date the smell has not stopped. Now, there is another threat of fire and smoke in the village due to piling up of RDF from these units.

 

“Last year there was fire and the BBMP instead of shutting the unit is still operating it. There is over one lakh tonnes of RDF generated from waste and this catches fire. If the measures are not taken and the stocked RDF is not moved out of the plant, there could be major fire tragedy.”

 

Due to the situation becoming even more grave in summer, the members also have approached the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to give direction to these waste processing units of BBMP to remove the fuel, yet there has been no action.

 

BBMP Special Commissioner for Solid Waste Management Sarfaraz Khan who held meetings with cement factory and bricks factories situated in Gulbarga said the talks did not materialise as these industries were asked to give Rs 500 per truck to transport the fuel that can be used to run their chimneys. “For transport alone BBMP will end up spending nearly Rs 1,000 crores and so we dropped that project. We will look for other alternative soon,” he said.

 

KSPCB chairman Lakshman, who is aware of the situation, has already directed the two cement companies to use this fuel in their factories for brick making. “I was told over 4 lakh tonnes were taken. We need to deal with the remaining to ensure safety of villages in the plants surrounding as this fuel is inflammable and toxic,” he said.

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