The protest by communities living around the Mandur landfills has entered its 16th day, even as both, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the government are scrambling to find alternative sites.
The second round of meeting with the community leaders on Sunday also remained inconclusive.
Two days after the first round of meeting, city in-charge Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy, Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana, BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan met the community leaders and requested them to allow dumping for another six months till they make an alternative arrangement. Sources said that the communities stuck to their stand of not allowing dumping garbage for six months.
However, they were ready to allow it for three to five months, provided they received a written assurance from Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee that after the time limit, the landfill will be closed permanently.
Mr. Reddy said that garbage would not be sent to Mandur on Sunday night but would be sent on Monday. It is likely that another round of discussions will be held on Monday. Mr. Lakshminarayan said that the community members have been assured that after six months, garbage would not be sent to Mandur.
“We will get back to the community members after apprising Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the development,” he said.
On Saturday night, community members kept vigil and tried to prevent the garbage trucks from going to the landfills. This led to heated arguments with the police present at the spot.
A senior BBMP official said, “Those trucks that were not allowed inside the village were diverted to the processing unit in Doddaballapur.”
