With villagers living in areas surrounding Kannahalli and Seegehalli kicking off a protest on Thursday by blocking garbage trucks from entering the waste processing plants there, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is afraid that garbage woes are back to haunt it.
Every day, around 600 tonnes of wet waste is taken to the plants. On Thursday morning, around 2,000 villagers, under the banner of ‘Kannahalli-Seegehalli Kasa Vilevari Horata Samithi’, began a dharna following breakdown of talks with the civic body on Wednesday evening.
The protesters said they planned to sleep through the night at Seegehalli Gate, the entrance to the two processing units. The villagers have been demanding closure of the plants over concerns of health hazards and foul smell emanating from there.
ADVERTISEMENT
Though BBMP officials managed to divert the day’s waste to other processing plants, they fear the worst if the protesters continue to block trucks. Given that most of the previous protests had come in waves, they are afraid that this may spark near other waste processing plants as well.
“The plants to which garbage is now being diverted to, Doddabidarakallu and Chigarenahalli, have also witnessed protests earlier. If this triggers protests at other plants as well, the entire solid waste management strategy in the city, which has been slowly settling down, will be derailed again. Even a week is too long. The issue, at worst, has to be resolved in the coming two days,” said N.S. Ramakanth, a member of the BBMP’s expert committee on solid waste management.