Villages vow to lock up waste-processing units today

Villages around the two garbage-processing units at Seegehalli and Kannahalli on the northern outskirts of Bengaluru are again on the boil, as residents want the facilities to be shut down immediately.

They have formed an organisation called ‘Kannahalli, Seegehalli Waste Processing Unit Protest Committee’, and declared to lock out the facilities on Thursday to prevent the entry of garbage vehicles. The agitation will start at 9.30 am with the villagers holding a protest at the entrance.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the committee’s president, Prof Ramachandra Bhat, said villagers’ lives had become “miserable” as the units had become the breeding grounds for mosquitoes and flies, not to speak of the overpowering stench. “People living in 100 villages under seven gram panchayats of Kodigehalli, Solikere, Channenahalli, Kadabagere, Machohalli, Kachohalli and Tavarekere are suffering.

“These facilities are right in the middle of residential layouts and not far away from the proposed Kempegowda Layout. People have to live with the stench round the clock,” he said.

Secretary of the committee P L Mohan Raju criticised the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), saying it never sought people’s consent before setting up these units. “The BBMP had tried to start a garbage-processing unit around 15 years ago but gave up after public protests,” he said. “It has again taken an anti-people stand.”