Palike may run dumping yards

With Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka overturning the order of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to suspend operations at the Mavallipura landfill, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) now plans to set up a special team to run the dumping yards in the City.

KSPCB chairman Sadashiva on Wednesday said the board would consider allowing resumption of operations at the dumping ground if the Palike furnished a satisfactory Action Taken Report (ATR). “Let them give us the ATR. Then we will consider it,” he said.
According to him, talks were on with the State government in this regard.
The KSPCB had ordered the shutdown of the landfill after it found ‘unscientific’ disposal of waste by Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited.

On Wednesday, at an emergency meeting where the government decided to terminate the contract with Ramky, Ashoka said: “The firm has grossly failed to meet the standards. We have asked the Palike to take over and run it.”

Following the deputy chief minister’s order, the BBMP has readied itself to resume operations at Mavallipura by deploying its own personnel. Officials in the Palike said a special team under a joint commissioner might be set up to manage the show. “The team will be responsible for the safe disposal of waste in Mavallipura and help in the transition of work from Ramky to the BBMP,” said a Palike official.

In the meantime, the State has announced development packages for the villages surrounding Mavallipura and Terra Firma landfills. Apart from a monetary package for Mavallipura and the surrounding villages, free medicines will be provided to the local residents. Health camps will be also conducted and new borewells will be sunk in the area, Ashoka said.

He said roads battered by garbage-laden trucks in the villages along Doddaballapur Road would be repaired soon.

Deputy mayor pulled up

Upset over the inaction of his party (BJP) members at the BBMP Council, Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka pulled up the standing committee chairpersons and the deputy mayor for failing to provide a solution to the garbage disposal problem.

He took the corporators to task for overloading the Mavallipura landfill beyond its actual capacity of 600 tonnes.