Protests by the residents of Mandur against the dumping of solid waste from Bangalore continued on Wednesday even as six protesters were taken into preventive custody by the police. Upalokayukta S.B. Majage visited the landfill at Mandur and freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy sat on a dharna for second time in solidarity with residents.
Tension continued around the dumping area in the morning as 100 residents staged a protest despite the fact that prohibitory orders were in place.
Led by Gopal Reddy, a local leader, the residents protested against dumping of garbage by Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Sources confirmed that 40 trucks of garbage was dumped on Wednesday morning with police security.
Even as the protesters tried preventing 30 trucks from dumping the garbage in the morning, the police dispersed the crowd.
Mr. Doreswamy also joined the protesters.
After a while, when six persons, including the Aam Admi Party leader Ravi Krishna Reddy, tried to stage a protest, the police took them into custody, said Abdul Ahad, Additional Superintendent of Police, Bangalore Rural district.
According to him, 55 protesters have been taken into custody since Tuesday and 400 police personnel have been deployed around the landfill to prevent any untoward incident.
Upalokayukta S.B. Majage observed that BBMP officials have done little to resolve the crisis.
When the Upalokayukta sought to know from the BBMP officials what action plan has been initiated to solve the problem, an official informed him that alternative arrangement to dump garbage has been proposed.
“Besides, tender process has been initiated to make compost out of the waste dumped in Mandur. The issue will be solved in a fortnight,” the official said, adding that the plant established to make compost out of garbage stopped functioning four years back.
Meanwhile, BBMP sources said that since garbage could not be dumped at Mandur landfill effectively, it is being diverted to other landfills at Terrafarma, Benkipura and Lakshmipura.
On a normal day, about 1,500 tonnes of solid waste is dumped at Mandur each day, the BBMP sources said, adding that about 40 trucks could only dump garbage on Wedneday.
PresentationIn a related development, two companies involved in solid waste management made presentations about their projects before Minister for Transport and district in-charge R. Ramalinga Reddy at the BMTC office. Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana and Commissioner M. Lakshminarayana were present.
