Community members from Doddabelavangala, near Doddaballapur, continued their indefinite strike on Tuesday and rejected any reconciliatory attempts made by Revenue Minister R. Ashok, Yelahanka MLA S.R. Vishwanath, BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar and the Mayor.
Mr. Vishwanath told The Hindu that protesters have found support in Hanumanthanatha Swami of Yeleramapura. They are demanding that the BBMP close a waste processing unit in Doddabelavangala and scrap its plans to revive another unit near Doddaballapur that has remained shut since 2016.
“We told them that the BBMP had no plans to revive the second unit, and that we want to clear the legacy waste that is accumulated there,” he said, and added that the operational waste processing plant could not be shut down immediately without any alternative arrangements.
The seer and 10 representatives have been invited for a meeting with Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. “We will give them a day’s time. We have also discussed the issue with the police, and will send waste from the city to the plant from Thursday,” he said. Admitting that with the Byragondlu dam coming up around 5-km away from the village under the Yettinahole project, Mr. Vishwanath said: “We may not be able to operate the plant for long.”
The BBMP has not sent any garbage trucks to the plant since the community members began their protest on Friday.
Civic officials maintained that there were no issues with the functioning of the plant. “Members of the Technical Guidance Committee also visited the plant recently. If there were any problems, they would have flagged them,” a senior official told The Hindu .
Mr. Ashok announced that he would visit the plant after Doddaballapur MLA T. Venkataramanaiah and several other MLAs from Bengaluru city raised concerns about environmental hazards being caused by the units, in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. The MLAs alleged that the waste processing centre was being managed in an unscientific manner causing environmental hazards.
