Tension prevailed in Chikkamankalala village near Doddaballapur on Tuesday afternoon, when hundreds of women blocked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) trucks carrying waste to the Terra Firma solid waste management unit.
Women from Gundlahalli, Kamana Agrahara and Chikkamankalala blocked over 200 trucks. They complained that any number of trucks were allowed to dump garbage in the landfill without any checks. They said foul smell emanating from the dumping yard was creating health problems to them. The protest, which started at around 3 pm, continued till 6 pm, and the jurisdictional police couldn’t convince the women to allow the trucks to move.
“Terra Firma does not consider us as human beings. We were living in an environment with fresh air and water and happy and content with our agricultural work. However, after this unit came up, we are only visiting hospitals with serious health issues. We can’t work in our fields because of the foul smell,” said Bhagyamma from Gundlahalli.
“A heap of waste was set on fire recently and it is still burning. Trucks continue to dump waste in this unit without doing any sort of composting,” she added. Senior police officers pacified the crowd and promised to get senior BBMP officials to the spot on Wednesday. However, the villagers refused to allow the trucks towards Terra Firma till the garbage mounds there were cleared.
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