Mandur villagers reject BBMP's yet another plea

Mandur residents have reportedly turned down an appeal by Mayor B S Satyanarayana and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner M Lakshminarayana to allow the dumping of garbage in their village.

A meeting held at the Avalahalli police station on Monday, the Mayor again appealed to the Mandur residents to give the Palike six months to dump the waste and start processing of the nearly 25 lakh tonnes of waste accumulated there over 10 years.

But the villagers reportedly refused to heed the request. The meeting was also attended by the Palike commissioner, the Bangalore Rural superintendent of police and local police officers.

Sources said the villagers asked the BBMP what it did in the last one year to find a solution to the garbage problem. In reply, the BBMP officials admitted their efforts had not yielded any results but they would surely give impetus to the projects being planned.

When the villagers refused to budge, the mayor and the commissioner requested them to give up their agitation till June 11 when they would arrange for their meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Satyanarayana has admitted that the situation in Mandur was grave.Speaking at the Environmental Awards ceremony in the City, he said, “You have to see it for yourself to assess the gravity of the problem. Children are forced to study under mosquito nets. The villagers sit under mosquito nets to eat. I think each one of us should go there to understand the problem.” 

He expressed helplessness in dealing with the situation effectively, saying the BBMP could not do anything until the government granted it an alternative land for dumping the waste.

There is, however, hope as the four garbage processing units in four directions proposed by the government would come up in the next six months, he added.