Sneha Nandihal’s mother, over 80 years old, was sitting in the living room of their home in Indiranagar with the main door open on Friday morning, when garbage was flung randomly into their compound. A few bags from three waste-laden autorickshaws landed inside the house too. Ms. Nandihal’s cook, who came out to see what the commotion was, threw the bags out and closed the door. The space between the doorstep and the gate soon resembled a minor landfill.
Ms. Nandihal, president, B.M. Kaval Indiranagar 1st Stage Residents Welfare Association, was not at home when the incident took place on Friday morning. Immediately after her mother informed her about it, she tried calling all the BBMP officials she knew.
Mess cleared
“I finally managed to get through to S. Raghu, C.V. Raman Nagar MLA, who happened to be in the same area. He intervened and made the offenders clear the mess,” she said.
Many residents believe the act, captured on CCTV cameras in the house, as retaliation to Ms. Nandihal’s intervention in the waste collection process in the area. She managed to get commercial units have BBMP-empanelled vendors collect their waste, replacing the contractor who was entrusted with the job of collection of the residential waste. The accusation made by her and others who supported her was that the contractor got paid more if he collected more garbage.
“Every time I attempted to streamline the system, the corporator (councillor) and the garbage mafia ensured that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) did not support us,” she said.
‘Will take action’
Reacting to the incident, Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, BBMP, said that the palike was checking if there was a connection between Ms. Nandihal’s campaign to get commercial properties to hand over waste to empanelled vendors and the incident. “Whatever the reason, there is no justification to the dumping of garbage. It is an inhuman act. Action will be initiated against the contractor for both offences, irregularities in collecting garbage from commercial properties and dumping garbage at her house,” he said.
Hoysala Nagar councillor Anand Kumar S. was unavailable for comment.
