Bengaluru: After the victory celebrations on Friday evening, the very first challenge before the new mayor B.N. Manjunath Reddy was to resolve to garbage crisis. On Saturday, hundreds of villagers of S. Bingipura in Anekal gathered outside the landfill and protested against the BBMP for dumping excessive garbage.
Some protesters alleged that there was a fire breakout in the landfill, which had become a serious concern of late. For the past three days, the villagers have not allowed any BBMP truck dump garbage at the landfill. As a result, areas like Basavanagudi, S.G Palya, Banashankari in South Bengaluru, have borne the brunt. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Mr Reddy said that he had called for a meeting with the BBMP officials and a team would visit S.Bingipura on Sunday.
“In the last week, BBMP officials have neglected many works under the pretext of election duty. Though ward engineers have no election related work, they have neglected solid waste management. The state government has sanctioned Rs 15 crore to improve the infrastructure in the village but those funds too have not been fully used,” he said.
He maintained that he was not aware of the exact situation in the village and the visit to landfill should help in resolving the matters. Meanwhile, the villagers also alleged that the BBMP was providing drinking water to the neighbouring villages, but S.Bingipura was not receiving even drinking water.
BBMP commissioner G.Kumar Naik, however, maintained that though time was sought to stop sending garbage trucks, the villagers protested demanding the trucks should stop carrying garbage immediately. “We cannot stop sending trucks until all the upcoming garbage processing plants become functional. We need more time,” he said.
Political drama in village?
Sources in BBMP suggested that BJP and Congress workers were in loggerheads and often created problems over garbage related issues. “The villagers are facing difficulties due to excessive dumping but the situation is blown out of proportion when these workers engage in a tiff. The situation is sometimes exaggerated and the workers protest when BBMP seeks the villagers co-operation,” the source maintained.
