JOIN USIt is a fact that Bangalore and garbage hassles are intertwined. This has not been any different at Kalasipalya bus stand. But, it now seems to be time for change.
Uncleared garbage, frequent drainage blocks and cattle menace are problems which dog the public and shopkeepers at the bus stand.
Vendors in the vicinity allege that garbage is not cleared regularly, but only once in a week. They say that the problem is aggravated when it rains.
“Garbage is pushed to the road, during rain. This makes the bus stand virtually inaccessible to commuters,” says Nitin, an employee at a store in front of the garbage pile at the bus stand.
The other issue here is frequent drainage blocks. Drainage gets blocked here often and after clearing the line, BWSSB dumps the waste on the footpath, saying that disposing waste is BBMP’s responsibility. But, the BBMP fails to do its job, said Pushpa, a fruit vendor. She said waste is left to rot on the footpath for days and this had badly hit their business.
Stray cattle have only aggravated the problem. The cattle dirty the place with their droppings. The dung also clogs the drainage lines frequently. Locals who rear cattle let out the dung and other waste to the drainage lines, thus choking them.
Kalasipalya corporator P Dhanraj said that a meeting was conducted with BBMP and BWSSB officials to sort out the problem. Shortage of labourers is posing problems in clearing garbage regularly.
He said, “Workers are paid just Rs 5,000, because of which they do not stay in the job for long.” He said another batch of workers will be recruited from July 1.
Recently, Justice Nagmohan Das, chairman of the High Court Legal Service Committee and Lok Adalat member Dr A N Yellappa Reddy visited the bus stand and ordered BBMP to construct a state of the art bus terminal there to overcome the problems.
BBMP health inspector Narasimha said that since the visit, two lorries had been deployed for clearing garbage, instead of one. Once the bus terminal is constructed, garbage collection will become easy as it will be dumped in one particular place, he said. He promised to solve the garbage mess within five months.