At last, Mandur open for dumping garbage from City

The City got a temporary reprieve from the garbage crisis on Saturday with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike succeeding in reopening the Mandur landfill for dumping waste.

Palike Commissioner Rajneesh Goel said dumping will resume from Saturday night and the results could be seen Sunday onwards. Sources said the arrangement was only an ad hoc one and the problem would escalate if the Palike failed to initiate concrete steps.

However, segregation at source is yet to gain acceptance by citizens, particularly bulk generators dumping waste at public places. To worsen the situation, he garbage collectors too stopped collecting segregated waste.

Savitri, a resident of Uttarahalli, said, “What is the point in segregating waste when the garbage collector in our area has not been provided separate bins for dry, wet, recyclable and medical waste?”

A garbage collector responded that his contractor has neither given any instruction on segregation nor separate bins to collect segregated waste. The Palike has identified six more places to dump garbage around the City - Yelaguppa (10 acres), Kallabalu (63 acres), Bagalur (13 acres), Sunkadakatte (15 acres), Challaghatta (10 acres) and Hindavadi (11 acres).

The Palike also launched the efforts to bio-mine the Mandur landfill, which bore the brunt of City's garbage for more than seven years. The Palike also has entrusted Terra Firma Biotechnologies with the task of processing at least 600 tonnes of garbage on a daily basis.

Nexus alleged

Meanwhile, a BBMP official, requesting anonymity said, there was an ‘unholy nexus’ between contractors, politicians and lower rung officials to continue with the landfill system of garbage disposal.

“Why is it that none of the corporators, legislators and the ministers are not coming forward to promote segregation at source? Even the ward-level engineers are not interested in popularising garbage segregation. Only a few NGOs and some residents’ welfare associations are for it,” said the official. He said the political class and the contractors want the landfill system to prevail given the huge money involved.

He said the Palike spends about Rs 450 crore a year, on solid waste management of which Rs 300 crore is incurred on transportation. At least half of the bills produced by the garbage contractors are fake, he alleged.