Just a few miles away from the heart of the IT hub - a vacant lot between Bannerghatta Road and Electronic City is a little Mandur in the making. While the BBMP, with a budget of Rs 400 crore for the purpose, claims to have found scientific solutions to deal with the city's waste, rows of burnt remains tell a different story. According to locals, every time a crisis hits, contractors take the easy way out, dumping and burning mountains of unsegregated garbage here.
Driving down the NICE Road, from Bannerghatta Road to Electronics City, vaguely reminds you of some international locale. With lush greenery and swanky apartments lining it, it seems like the 'desi' answer to smooth and pretty foreign roads until a thick cloud of smoke engulfing it wakes you to reality, or more specifically to a burning truth you cannot miss.
Just a few kilometres from tech firms like Infosys, Wipro, HCL and a few meters into the NICE Road from the Electronics City toll gate is a stench bomb. Heaps of garbage are left burning here all through the day and night even as the Siddaramaiah regime continues to claim it has ended the landfill drama. While the scene is similar to past ones at the Mandur and Mavallipura landfills , there are no protestors here, allowing the toxic fumes to rise unhindered into the air every single day.
At least five tonnes of garbage are regularly set fire to here with garbage from in and around Electronics City finding its way to this vacant plot adjacent to the NICE Road. Five trucks reportedly bring garbage here at odd hours on alternate days, making this illegal dumping yard a haven for scrap dealers. Around 20 families from different parts of North India are employed by owners of four godowns that have sprung up here to store the scrap salvaged from the garbage.
Said Rahul, a scrap dealer, "The BBMP contractors and some private individuals bring garbage from in and around Electronics City and dump it here on this vacant plot. We segregate it and take stuff we can sell from it. What we cannot use we burn in pits. It takes several days for us to burn it all, although the fire is never doused. What can we do? There is so much of it. We have been burning garbage her for the last four months.”
The dealer, who apparently had no clue that what he was doing could be harming the environment and was also illegal, continued to set fire to a huge pile of garbage even as he spoke, clearly revealing that Bengaluru's air is getting more polluted by the day while the government refuses to come to grips with the crisis that is getting steadily out of hand, ruining what is left of the Garden City. As for the NICE staff , they feigned ignorance about the dumping of garbage nearby. "What garbage? We don't know of garbage dumps in this locality. Nobody is even allowed to bring garbage on this road, let alone burn it under our nose," they said when asked.
Apathy at the heart of garbage crisis?
Lush landscapes greeted commuters who arrived in Bengaluru by train. Those days are gone, having given way to the unmistakable stench of garbage strewn across the railway tracks as trains chug into the city.
Bengaluru’s downslide has been steady, baffling successive governments. The garbage problem has grown to such proportions that it now appears quite unmanageable. With the health of city-dwellers now at stake, with garbage being burned in several localities, an urgent solution is required. Is the government up to the job? It spent a whopping Rs 400 crore on six garbage processing plants, which have done little to dispose of the 4,000 tonnes of garbage we generate every day .
Mr N. S. Ramakanth, a member of the expert committee on Solid Waste Management constituted by the high court, said, “ The plants have not been operating well enough and as agencies running them are not paid properly, waste is not processed. Also,these plants have failed to control the odour, indicating a lack of proper licheate treatment, fueling public anger.”
The committee set up by the high court has now demanded third party inspection of the plants and a monthly review of their operation, he reveals. “The BBMP and state government officers have gone on several junkets and study tours at the expense of taxpayers but the outcome is a stinking Bengaluru and mounds and mounds of garbage all across the city,” regrets Dr. Nagaraj, a resident of Rajajinagar. “Pourakarmikas have their own rules when it comes to collection and transportation of garbage from households to plants. Invariably, garbage is dumped on empty sites and burned, or dumped in drains,” he lamented.
Q&A with Subodh Yadav, BBMP special commissioner
Q: The BBMP claims burning of garbage is an offence, but tonnes of it is being burnt day and night near Electronic City. Can you explain this.
A: Electronics City does not come under BBMP jurisdiction and has its own arrangement to dispose of its garbage. However, burning garbage is a serious offence and something of this magnitude is worrisome. We were not aware of this and it needs immediate inquiry.
Q: Garbage is being segregated here and only the unwanted stuff is being burnt. This sounds quite systematic.
A: The way the garbage is being segregated and burnt tells us that somebody is not aware of the rules or is deliberately doing this. If people are employed to segregate and burn garbage, there’s something more to the whole issue than meets the eye. We will have to take action before this becomes a huge problem.
Q: How do you plan to tackle this menace that is spreading across the city?
A: First we will deal with this case. A BBMP officer will be sent to check into it. Such incidents in the city are being curbed with stringent vigilance and constant monitoring.
