Bengaluru: Villagers protest, muck back on our roads

Bengaluru: The garbage crisis has worsened in the city with villagers from Seegehalli and Kannahalli setting up road blocks and stopping the  dumping and processing  of rubbish from the city at the scientific waste management centres nearby.

With  contractors forced to dump  garbage  on street corners or on the outskirts of the city, huge  mounds of rubbish are making the lives of people in these parts miserable. Among the worst affected are Vidyapeetha Circle, Tankbund Road in Kathriguppe, Thimmayya Road and Gandhinagar  where heaps of garbage have been left uncleared for the last three days.

The problem has become more acute since the Terrafirma landfill was shut down. Adding to the crisis, Yelahanka MLA,S. R. Vishwanath has  threatened to prevent garbage trucks from entering the Mavallipura waste processing plant. Mr R. Jayaram, who lives in Kathriguppe, notes that while the BBMP has up six waste processing units and formed a couple of committees  to douse the protests and keep their surroundings clean, it has failed to take the villagers into confidence and process the waste scientifically as promised.

“The BBMP has failed to achieve 100 per cent segregation at source. When the pourakarmikas refuse to collect the garbage it is thrown on the street corners,” he deplores.

When contacted, BBMP special commissioner (Solid Waste Management),  Subodh Yadav, said closure of  the Terrafirma  landfill would  not have any impact on the city. "The nearly 600 tonnes of garbage that was going there will be diverrted to other waste processing plants. But due to the ongoing confusion at Seegehalli and Kannahalli plants it  will take a little while to make the arrangements,” he said.

Meanwhile, villagers have now reportedly agreed to stop their blockage of  garbage trucks going to the processing plants at Kannahalli and Seegehalli following the intervention of Union minister,  D. V. Sadananda Gowda. But  they have demanded that the plants don’t give out a stench and are not a health hazard. “They have  offered to take us on a visit to the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) to show use the modern technology  in use,” said a farmer, Channappa.