All efforts to shift the municipal solid waste dump yard at Kapuluppada have failed and it will continue where it is, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao has said.
Inaugurating an international symposium on municipal solid waste management here on Friday, he said the yard was spread over 100 acres and was a prime location but any effort to shift it faced resistance from people.
He said three or four times efforts were made in the last six months. People were welcoming other industries and IT parks but not willing to accept shifting the dump yard to their vicinity. When he and the Municipal Commissioner went to a village around 15000 to 20000 people gathered and complained against the stench and health problems the dump yard would cause, the HRD Minister said.
The symposium on “Smart waste management and Swachh Bharat Mission” was organised by CII and AP Technology Development and Promotion Centre.
Realising the importance of SWM, State and Central governments were according top priority to sanitation and the Rs.374 crore received under 12{+t}{+h}Finance Commission were spent on it, the Minister said.
Former Special Chief Secretary and honorary adviser to APTD Centre S. Chakravarthy said 380 million people were living in cities and eight million without toilets creating a huge SWM problem. Municipal Commissioner M. Harinarayanan said during the last one year GVMC had invested in infrastructure to realise Swachh Bharat goals. CII Visakhapatnam Zonal Council Chairman V. Murali Krishna said the symposium was meant to deliberate on technical and financial viability of solid waste disposal.
