Unscientific disposal of waste angers Mavallipura residents

They walk out of conciliatory meeting at BBMP office

Angry over the unscientific disposal of waste in violation of the Karnataka High Court directions and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) failure to heed their woes, the Mavallipura villagers on Wednesday walked out of a conciliatory meeting at the BBMP head office.

BBMP Special Commissioner (solid waste management), Darpan Jain, had convened a meeting with Mavallipura residents to resolve the contentious issues, which the villagers have been protesting.

Following the Karnataka High Court order, the BBMP operationalised the Mavallipura waste processing unit. The order to restart the Mavallipura landfill and garbage disposal unit comes with a rider that there should not be dumping of waste in an unscientific manner and only segregated waste should be brought there.

However, the villagers are up in arms stating that the High Court order has come as a boon to the BBMP to dump mixed waste, as was practised earlier, which had triggered massive protests in the past. The severe protest had made the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) order closure of Mavallipura landfill.

Led by B Srinivas, the delegation of villagers, met Jain and other BBMP officials and apprised them of blatant violations of the High Court directions and ignoring the problems faced by the residents of the village. The meeting was convened after the BBMP officials learnt the brewing resentment at Mavallipura against the unscientific disposal of waste.

During the meeting, the residents put forth their 18 demands including rainwater harvesting for every household, health insurance to all family members in the affected villages, compensation to the dead persons and treatment to those suffering from a variety of diseases, one government job per family to all the affected villages, complete decontamination of ground water, rejuvenation of lakes, compensation for loss of cattle and livestock, biomining of two landfills, restoration of village pasture land, regular monitoring of water, cattle survey of entire area, restoring forest around the village and supply of cauvery water.

The BBMP officials considered the demands near impossible to implement and refused to oblige the villagers. This enraged the delegation, which walked out raising slogans against the BBMP. Later speaking to reporters, Srinivas said the BBMP is not keen on solving the problem. It is resorted to old practises of unscientific disposal of waste.