The city may soon be in the throes of a garbage crisis again, if the communities living around the Mandur landfills do not withdraw their threat to block dumping of garbage in their backyard.
The communities on Sunday refused to budge from their earlier stand of not allowing garbage from the city to be dumped in the landfill.
City in-charge Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy, accompanied by Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan, visited Mandur village and tried convincing the communities of the need to allow the civic body to dump waste for another six to eight months. However, the communities said that they would prevent the garbage trucks from entering their village.
The city generates around 4,000 tonnes of garbage, of which around 1,800 tonnes is sent to the landfills in Mandur. Though the waste at the landfills is supposed to be scientifically disposed of, the private companies entrusted with this responsibility have failed in doing their part. With garbage just mounting at the two landfills there, leachate has polluted the groundwater, besides affecting the health of the villagers.
It is not the first time that the communities have protested against the dumping of garbage. They had given BBMP six months time to put in place alternatives and stop sending waste to Mandur.
Mr. Ramalinga Reddy conceded that the BBMP had failed to keep its word. “There was nothing concrete planned. But, this time, we have four projects in the pipeline and these have been approved by the Cabinet. Scientific disposal of waste will be taken up and the accumulated waste at the landfills will be processed and cleared,” he said. He added that the communities would be taken into confidence and they would be urged to allow the BBMP to dump waste at Mandur till the projects are ready to be commissioned. Asked if the communities would call off their strike, he only said: “Garbage will be sent out of the city.”
