Remove garbage dumped in Bagalur quarry, NGT tells BBMP

The National Green Tribunal on Friday pulled up the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials for “unscientific way” of dumping solid waste in a stone quarry at Bagaluru village on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

Hearing a petition filed by Venkatesh and other villagers, the NGT bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar said dumping garbage without segregating dry and wet waste material would adversely affect the health of local residents. The tribunal also directed the officials to remove all solid waste dumped in the quarry and segregate it scientifically.

The expenditure for segregation should be borne by the BBMP officials, the bench said.

Palike commissioner Manjunath Prasad and joint commissioner Sarfraj Khan were present during the proceedings.

Petitioner’s advocate Vivek Reddy said as much as 2.75 lakh tonne solid waste has been dumped in the quarry. Despite the BBMP spending Rs 800 crore to Rs 900 crore for collecting garbage from Bengaluru city, the Palike failed to segregate the waste scientifically, he said.

He also brought to the NGT’s notice that Central Pollution Control Board, in its recent survey, also noticed the adverse effect on the health of local residents. A Higher quantity of iron and zinc was found in village borewells. Since villagers depended on borewell water for drinking purposes, they struggled to get potable water.

The bench directed the BBMP officials to submit a detailed report mentioning what action has been taken for scientific disposal of wastes and posted the matter to October 25.