Citizens can begin to breathe easy now as the city is slowly returning to normality with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) launching a cleaning drive to make up for the garbage pile-up of the last five days. However, the Sunday afternoon deadline for the task was not met. So, citizens in some parts of the city will have to endure the dirt and stench till Monday.
Even though the cleaning process was on in full swing on Sunday, the backlog could not be cleared by afternoon. But a BBMP official said that people can be assured of the city being completely clean by Monday as routine collection will start then.
“All backlog cleaning will be done on Monday along with routine collection,” the official said.
By Sunday evening, nearly 2,000 tonnes of waste was collected across the city.
BBMP Commissioner M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda carried out an inspection on Saturday to look at the extent of damage due to the garbage pile-up, caused by a combination of factors, including the strike by contract pourakarmikas and the resistance put up by residents of Mavallipura against garbage being dumped in the landfill there. He had promised that garbage would be cleared by Sunday afternoon.
However, the major issue of landfills still persists. The palike has postponed the submission of the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the Mavallipura landfill yet again to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). The KSPCB may or may not lift the closure order on Mavallipura on submission of the report.
On this, Mr. Shankarlinge Gowda said, “Nothing can be done overnight.” On whether any action will be taken against Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd., which maintains the Mavallipura landfill, he said a decision would be taken in a few days.
