City's garbage starts to fester again

With the issue of garbage dumping at landfills erupting every now and then, garbage is piling up across the city

With the garbage disposal issue cropping up yet again in the country’s IT hub, the state government today said that it would take at least eight months to solve the problem as four waste processing plants have not started to function yet.

“We have sanctioned all four projects, and once they start functioning, the problem will be solved and this would take eight months,” Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy told reporters here.

Residents living near the Mandur landfill have gone on protest for dumping waste in their village and threatened the city corporation that garbage trucks would not be allowed in the area. The protesters blocked the landfill site till late at night before dispersing. The villagers claimed no garbage was dumped at night.

The residents had allowed dumping to continue after the government assured them that the landfill would be closed by May 31, but the corporation has continued dumping waste there. Reddy said, the government and civic body Bangalore Bruhat Mahanagar Palike officials are trying to convince communities of the need to allow the civic body to dump waste for another eight months.

The government is also identifying alternative landfills to handle garbage, he added.

The four projects (waste processing units or garbage-to-energy conversion plants) have been planned at Magadi (600 MT), Doddaballapur (500 MT), Kannahalli, off Magadi Road (500 MT) and junction between Kannahalli and Kudlu (1,000 MT), Reddy said.

The Mandur crisis made headlines last year too with the residents staging protests against dumping of garbage in their village. The issue had assumed serious proportions then when Bangalore was dubbed a “garbage city”. The BBMP had promised to create alternative waste disposal facilities and stop dumping waste in Mandur after May 31.

The minister also said that the government has taken strict action against officials for not clearing the garbage. “We have suspended them,” he said. Bangalore city produces around 4,000 tonnes of garbage per day. BBMP dumps 1,800 tonnes in Mandur; 1,000 tonnes in Gundlahalli village, Doddaballapur; 500 tonnes in S Bingipura. It has 150 dry waste collection centres.