Mafia behind Bengaluru garbage collection, says DKS

Bengaluru: Even as the city is grappling with garbage disposal, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Friday conceded in the Legislative Council that garbage collection in Bengaluru is controlled by a big mafia and he was working out a detailed plan to find a permanent solution to this problem.

Asserting that a detailed reply on garbage disposal in the city would be tabled in the Council on Monday, Shivakumar, who holds the Bengaluru Affairs portfolio, said this problem has grown over the years since, in the past, garbage collection was divided into 89 packages and the directions of the high court, which is seized of this case, is still awaited.

Replying to Congress MLC Nagaraj Yadav’s calling attention to the problem, Shivakumar said his aim was to establish waste dump yards 100 km away from Bengaluru, as the city was growing. “I am even ready to buy a land parcel of 100 acres even if it is as far as Kolar or any place within 100 km from Bengaluru. I appeal to all my MLA friends to hand over land if they have any in their constituency,” he said.

He added that two land parcels of 100 acres each near NICE Road and another near Doddaballapur have been identified. “New technologies exist and we can build leachate-proof landfills. Therefore, members should show land parcels in their constituencies,” he said.

The DyCM also conceded that he understands the predicament of members as successive governments have failed when landfills were set up in the past. “I agree that we did not even follow basic human values when we developed dump yards. We took no precautions. In the past, even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other CMs have tried to convince people, but with little success,” he said.

Citing an example, Shivakumar said that when he sought 100 acres from Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board in one of their industrial parks, Industries Minister, (M B Patil) was reluctant to accept the proposal.

He also noted that waste-to-energy plants in various parts of the country are failures and the only hope is to establish gas manufacturing plants.