Garbage piles up on streets as landfills go dysfunctional

BBMP admits things difficult, but says new waste units hold out hope

Uncleared garbage is piling up in several parts of the City as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) struggles to dump and process waste at various landfill sites.

Garbage has not been cleared in such places as Ulsoor, Banashankari and Yarab Nagar for a fortnight now as people living close to various landfill sites on the City’s outskirts resist the dumping of waste there.

Barely a week ago, villagers living around landfill sites run by TerraFirma and MSGP had staged a protest. Then, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had to face people’s anger at Lakshmipura and Bingipura landfill sites in Anekal taluk when he went on a tour of Bengaluru.

Even S T Somashekar, the Yeshwantpur MLA belonging to the Congress party, strongly opposed the dumping of waste at the so-called processing units in his constituency.

The Lakshmipura landfill site stopped taking in garbage two months ago following a fire accident, according to BBMP officials. As a result, parts of southern Bengaluru have been affected.

Somashekar said that garbage had not been cleared in his constituency for a month now. “The BBMP has proposed to set up waste-to-energy plants at Kannahalli and Seegehalli which fall in my constituency,” he told Deccan Herald.

“But even before the project is implemented, the garbage collected in other wards is being dumped there. I have complained to the BBMP commissioner and other officials and they have sought 15 days’ time to address the problem.”

People living close to these landfill sites complain that contractors have resorted to burning the garbage due to paucity of space, filling the air with poisonous gases.

“The TerraFirma waste-processing unit near Doddaballapur is spread over 100 acres and has been functional since 2006. The entire site is filled with mounds of garbage,” said a resident who didn’t want to give his name.

“A few months ago, the entire mound was set on fire and the flames haven’t been fully doused, which is evident from the smoke billowing out of it. The MSGP garbage-processing unit near Chigarenahalli gets more garbage than it can process.” Nearly 200 garbage trucks enter these two landfill sites.

BBMP Commissioner G Kumar Naik admitted that villagers were not allowing waste-processing units to function, resulting in a garbage problem in Bengaluru.

But he held out hope that once new waste-processing plants were set up, the problem would be solved to some extent. He appealed to citizens to co-operate with the BBMP in operationalising the waste-processing plants.