Hyderabad: Pollution Control Board officials of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are vexed with the urban development bodies in their respective states for allowing houses to mushroom in the vicinity of garbage dumping yards.
Officials from both the boards said that when dumping sites are selected, it is kept in mind that they are far away from residential localities.
However, without strict regulation from the municipal and urban development bodies, residential localities come up close to dumping yards after which people raise a hue and cry about the unbearable stench.
The officials also said that all this is made possible with support from local politicians, who side with residents and demand shifting of the dumping yard.
A case in point is the Jawaharnagar dumping yard in Hyderabad. Earlier, garbage dumping yards were located in Autonagar and Gandhamguda, where there were very few residential localities.
People then started constructing houses very close to these dumping yards with no restrictions from the GHMC and HMDA. They also garnered support of the local politicians. After this, the previous dumping yards were closed and shifted to Jawaharnagar.
However, the government itself constructed houses for economically weaker sections very close to the Jawaharnagar dumping yard without bothering about the stench.
A senior TSPCB official said, “There has to be strict measures to control growth of residences around dumping yards. The city is expanding, but we cannot keep shifting the dumping yards. Why would people from Ranga Reddy and Medak districts allow the setting up of dumping yards in their districts for the waste that Hyderabad generates? Already the lorries from the city make a trip of about 40 km to dump waste in Jawaharnagar every day.”
An official of the APPCB said that a similar situation exists in cities like Vizag and Vijayawada. He added, “The PCB lacks teeth. We can send notices to the organisation responsible for managing waste at dumping yards if violations are found, but we cannot regulate constructions around the dumping yard. We cannot penalise the municipal bodies for letting the constructions come up.”
