Material Recovery Facility to come up in Mangaluru's Gunjimutt

Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat (DKZP) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Kumar said that a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) will be set up on a two-acre land in Ganjimutt, in Mangaluru's outskirts, under Swacch Bharat Mission at a total cost of Rs 2.70 crore.

He was addressing a gathering during the DK ZP meeting organised at Netravathi Hall in DKZP premises on Tuesday. The facility's detailed project report (DPR) was ready and tenders had been floated. The work order will be issued shortly. Once the facility is set up, then all the dry waste from the gram panchayats (GP) will be sent to the facility for recycling.

The government also had sanctioned a Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant which will come up at Golthamajalu and Ujire. The land is yet to be finalised for the plant at Golthamajalu, the CEO informed. When members raised concern over indiscriminate dumping of garbage on the road in rural areas, the CEO said that a task force should be constituted at GP level to check indiscriminate dumping.

To check the households from releasing sewage onto the road, the CEO said that the PDOs were asked to take up work on soak pits under MGNREGS. If the houses still continue to release the sewage water in an unhygienic manner, notices will be served and action will be initiated against them.

When ZP president Meenakshi Shanthigodu raised the issue of Solid Waste Management units in the district, the CEO said that out of 223 Gram Panchayat, Detailed Project Report of the units was approved for 124 gram panchayats by the government. Full-fledged Solid Waste Management units were functioning in 62 gram panchayats and waste is segregated. As many as 95 gram panchayats are facing a shortage of land for setting up of the unit, he said

In some gram panchayats, the public were opposing the unit. “I have directed officials to go for cluster units by bringing together two to three-gram panchayats. Within two to three months, we will come out with a complete plan on the units for the remaining gram panchayats that are facing a problem on finding land,” he added.