Garbage issue; govt to give undertaking to Mandur residents

Karnataka government would give an undertaking to the agitating residents of Mandur living around the landfills, promising that garbage from Bangalore would not be dumped there after five months, State Minister Ramalinga Reddy said today.

The process of giving the undertaking has begun and would be completed by tomorrow morning or earlier, Reddy, State Transport Minister who is in charge of Bangalore, told reporters here.

Reddy's statement came after a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with City Mayor B S Sathyanarayana and officials of civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike as government continued efforts to find a solution in the wake of severe protests by Mandur residents against garbage dumping.

Last week, Siddaramaiah had a meeting with Mandur villagers, who demanded a written undertaking from government of not dumping garbage in the landfills around the village.

The minister also said the CM has instructed joint commissioners of BBMP to monitor garbage disposal works. "They should be available on field right from 6 am," he said.

Reddy said if necessary, the officials will be suspended if they failed to clear the garbage.

The Mandur crisis made headlines last year also with the residents staging protest against dumping of garbage. The issue had assumed serious proportions then when Bangalore was dubbed a "garbage city".

BBMP had promised to create alternative waste disposal facilities and stop dumping waste in Mandur after May 31. Bangalore produces around 4,000 tonnes of garbage per day.

BBMP dumps 1,800 tonnes in Mandur; 1,000 tonnes in Gundlahalli village, Doddaballapur; 500 tonnes in S Bingipura. It has 150 dry waste collection centres.

Apart from discussing garbage disposal issue, Reddy said Siddaramaiah has given instructions to BBMP to reach the target of generating Rs 2,500 crore revenue compared to last year's total collection of Rs 1,300 crore.

However, Siddaramaiah has no intentions of revising or imposing new taxes to reach the Rs 2,500 crore revenue, Reddy said. "Siddaramaiah has asked the BBMP officials to generate revenues by identifying tax defaulters and those who had paid taxes under assessing their properties," he said.

Siddaramaiah also directed the BBMP to identify government buildings which have not been listed to generate revenues. "There are 25 lakh buildings in Bangalore, of which only 15 lakh have been listed," he said.

Replying to a query, Reddy said a team, led by himself and the Mayor along with BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana, had inspected alternative garbage dumping sites to Mandur yesterday.

Asked to name the alternative dumping sites, Reddy said the government has strictly asked the team not to reveal any new land locations to the media.

"Officials fear that the local MLAs will put pressure on the government to drop the garbage dumping project if area names are published," he said.