Salarpuria SOS: Can't breathe, it stinks!

Bengaluru: “We were one of the first apartments to segregate waste in the neighborhood and do community composting of wet waste. Today, we come out of our homes and all we see is garbage around us. At one point, there was garbage spanning nearly 50 feet stretch of the road. Why this apathy?” asks Priyanka, a resident of Salarpuria Cambridge Residency in Jogupalya.

For residents of Salarpuria Cambridge Residency it’s been a long battle against garbage. The street adjoining the boundary wall that runs across the apartment compound has been turned into a garbage transit point.

While the residents have not protested against the BBMP’s routine, they have only requested the authorities to clear the garbage at regular intervals and keep the premises clean. However, their requests have fallen on deaf ears and the BBMP officials claim there was a capacity limitation of the trucks carrying garbage from this area.

Ajay, another resident, explains that the recent rainfall wreaked havoc in the neighbourhood and the road near the transit point turned dangerous for motorists and pedestrian with waterlogging and floating garbage. It resembled a large open gutter, he added.

“Bikers skid and hurt themselves and it was unsafe even to walk on the road. After the rains abated there was stench all through the day, making way for infections. How can anybody live with this?” he lamented.

The residents rue that despite their continuous requests to the BBMP pourakarmikas not to throw garbage at the transit point, they continue to do so under the directive of BBMP.

Sharmila, another resident, said, “The larger issue is the ineffective management of the garbage, which has resulted in randomly transferring the dumping spots. When we are segregating garbage and being vigilant about waste management, why can’t the authorities provide us safe and cleaner environment?”

The residents say that although the matter was brought to the notice of the corporator, it only fell on deaf ears.

‘No alternate place to set up garbage transit point’
DC talks to Jogupalya ward corporator Gautham Kumar  

Excerpts.
How can BBMP set up a transit point in a residential locality?
The street adjoining Salarpuria Cambridge Residency is close to a rajakaluve and the apartment is located in the fringes of the rajakaluve buffer zone. For long, this has been a sparsely accommodated layout. Hence, the BBMP Special Commissioner (Garbage) Subodh Yadav had identified this spot as transit point. Also, the exit roads are closely attached to this point. Moreover, we do not have alternate places to set up transit points. We have no choice but to run the transit point from here.

So why not maintain the hygiene of the premises?
Sometimes citizens illegally dump garbage in this spot and there maybe times when the garbage is not picked up immediately. Latest by the next day, the garbage is picked up. The pourakarmikas ensure that it is removed at the
earliest.

Are there any plans to identify another transit point?
We do not have alternate places and this is the spot identified by the BBMP. Having said that we are constantly looking for places, which do not cause inconvenience to public.