JOIN USThe putrefying odour wafting from the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) plant near HSR Layout has taken a political turn with elections just weeks away.
Residents have been holding protests for the past two years to force the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to shut down the place in vain and are continuing to suffer from the stench.
With election campaigning heating up, both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have weighed into the issue by supporting calls for the plant to be closed.
Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee secretary Kavitha Reddy used Twitter (@WeAreHSRLayout) and Facebook to express her support for the issue, besides backing the multiple protests. She was among the supporters of the protest on February 11.
Two weeks after Kavitha’s protest with the citizens, BJP MLA representing Bommanahalli Sathish Reddy created a ruckus at the BBMP monthly council meeting demanding the plant’s shutdown.
BJP Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrashekar has also assured to give a sympathetic hearing to the problems of the residents in a meeting he would hold on Saturday, April 21.
Between 200 to 300 people are expected to gather for Chandrashekar’s meeting at Akruti Silver Line Clubhouse and demand the shutdown of the waste processing plant.
With no response to their protests, residents are hoping that the meeting with the MP would bring a solution. “We’re ready to brief Mr. Chandrashekar on the issue and we’re hopeful that he’ll escalate it,” said Meera Rotti, a resident of Nagarjuna Green Apartments.
Another local resident Kamesh Rastogi, who has been fighting for the issue for several years, regretted the lack of political will. “They should’ve solved the issue by now if they had any concern for human beings,” he said.
Rastogi also accused the KCDC of dumping the residual waste from the plant into the Somasundarapalya lake.