Bengaluru: Tucked away in the midst of the buzzing Tannery Road, Roshan Nagar in D.J Halli is a small area you could easily miss while passing by. But the stench that emanates from the streets here is something nobody could miss. In their desperate bid to solve the garbage problem in the area, the residents have become ‘armed’. And their ‘weapons’ to ensure garbage management could give the contractors a run for their money!
Some residents have hung brooms and slippers on the walls of a drain where garbage is being dumped illegally. The open drain is located near MECT Public School near DJ Halli police station. Abdul Raheem, a resident of D.J Halli, tells Deccan Chronicle that the idea behind hanging this ‘equipment’ is to send a message to those who dump garbage anywhere near the drain -- that they could be beaten up with the same broom or slipper!
“Our requests and pleas have fallen on deaf ears and many women in the locality blatantly refuse to listen. When we try to sensitize them towards garbage management and tell them not to dump garbage on streets, they question us and say things like, ‘Who are you to tell me all this? Does this road belong to you or your father?’ Fed up of arguing with them, we decided to take the matter into our own hands,” shares Mr Raheem.
Evidently the harried inhabitants are fighting with their backs to the wall. Without violence or drama, they have hit upon a simple method to drive home their message. Slippers and brooms stared menacingly at the faces of people who went to dump garbage on the open drain. “The school has had to contend with so many problems because of the dumping of garbage and they even hired a security guard to prevent it. But the locals who throw garbage near the drain assaulted the guard, who was forced to quit. The residents just don’t seem to listen to anyone,” Mr Raheem adds.
The situation is further aggravate by the fact that pourakarmikas in the area don’t clear garbage regularly and they don’t even bother to collect garbage from homes. “Since the school is located near the garbage dumping point, occasionally pourakarmikas do clear garbage. But they do not come door-to-door to collect garbage, which is why people are forced to dump garbage on the road,” Mr Raheem says.
Though the school authorities offered to pay Rs 200 to the BBMP to clear the garbage, nothing has changed as the residents continue to dump garbage all through the day. Amir Jaan, another resident, remarks, “Either the residents should be ready to change or the BBMP should find a long-term solution for us. If the people who are affected raise the issue with these residents, they pick fights. We want the authorities to solve our problems.”
