Vijayanagar residents oppose waste segregation plant inside park

They ask why the plant is being moved from the original site

NOT ON: Morning walkers and residents of Vijayanagar protest on Thursdayagainst the move to locate a waste segregation plant inside the local park.

After Banashankari residents, it is the turn of people in Vijayanagar to oppose the construction of the waste segregation plant inside the park in the M.C. Layout.

On Thursday morning, residents, including morning walkers, staged a protest saying locating the unit there will spoil their health and drive walkers away.

The Rs. 28 lakh plant, being constructed by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), is coming up on 30 x 40 ft at Marenahalli (Ward No. 125).

A school for special needs children and a tailoring school run by the BBMP are located adjacent to the proposed plant.

“The plant, if located inside the park, will spoil the health of the large number of morning and evening walkers, children, and girls attending tailoring classes,” said Shakila Shetty, resident of Ambigadasa Layout.

Fast threat

Walkers, who come from M.C. Layout, Central Exercise Layout, and Sampige Layout, Amarjyothinagar and Ambigadasa Layout to stretch their legs daily, have threatened to stage an indefinite protest to pressure the BBMP and local MLA Priya Krisha to relocate the plant to its earlier designated place 100 metres away.

Instead of constructing the plant there, at the earlier designated vacant land, the BBMP has laid the foundation for it inside the park, indignant members of Vijaya Viveka Foundation and the Ambigadas Layout Residents Welfare Association pointed out.

Members of the Laughter Club, Vijayanagara Nagarika Vedike, and Vijaya Viveka Prathisthana also said the plant was detrimental to the neighbourhood.

A memorandum signed by 81 residents and handed over to Mr. Priya Krishna alleged a conspiracy by vested interests in the move to relocate the plant from its original site.

Earlier, the project was sanctioned to the Vijayanagara Nagarika Vedike, which was to implement the project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). But the BMMP did not hand over the site to the vedike, choosing instead to relocate the project inside the park.

BBMP officials justified the move saying it was only following the Karnataka High Court’s November 2012 order to set up waste segregation centre in each ward.

It may be recalled that Banashankari residents are up in arms over locating such a plant adjacent to the aquatic centre.