Don’t dump waste in our backyard: Villagers

Bengaluru: Even as the BBMP and state government are making efforts to find a solution to the ever growing garbage crisis in the city, there is a growing unrest among villagers residing close to the waste processing plants.

On Monday morning, tension erupted when residents of Gorur village and surrounding areas at Magadi-Ramanagar taluk ransacked two cars and chased down authorities of Satarem Municipal Waste Solid Waste to Energy plant, where they had planned a ground breaking ceremony.

Despite the high court directive to set up the plant, which is proposed to convert solid waste into energy, the villagers had objected to the ground breaking ceremony. However, the authorities of Ramanagara and Kudur police rushed to the spot and arrested five persons.

Cases have been booked against the arrested persons for damaging cars and intimidating the authorities of Satarem and obstructing them from performing ground breaking ceremony, said police sources.

Sources from Satarem said that they have obtained all sanctions including Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to establish waste to energy plant on 30 acres of land. The company also proposed to provide employment to local villagers apart from welfare programmes.

About 30 people came in a group and damaged two company cars. They also obstructed the ground breaking ceremony. When the matter was informed to the Chief Minister and Benglauru Development Minister action was initiated immediately. Police forces rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control.

All the necessary approvals have been taken. The plant will be up and running in the next 24 months from the time the work is commissioned. Once the first phase of the project is completed, the Satarem will accept about 1,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) of garbage in closed containers and it would be processed to generate Refused Derived Fuel (RDF). Once the plant is running, the BBMP would have to pay Rs 279 per MT to the Satarem. The plant would generate 14.5 MW of power and sell it to private players.

The sources added that ground breaking ceremony will now happen on December 3 with full police support. The Deputy Commissioner Ramanagar held a meet with members of Panchayat and made them aware of the court order and assured complete support for the commissioning of the plant, added sources.

Segregation plan yet to take off
Although the BBMP has announced a number of plants to convert waste to energy and waste to manure the civic body has failed in effective implementation of the plants.

Although all the waste processing plants are insisting on sending segregated waste to the plants, the BBMP contractors and engineers have failed in ensuring this. Hence these plants are refusing to accept mixed waste, added sources.

The BBMP is enforcing segregation at source by announcing a penalty. To begin with, the BBMP has been organising a number of awareness programmes to segregate waste at source, failing which the BBMP has warned to levy penalty.

Hitherto, bulk generators were penalised for not segregating the waste and now the BBMP has warned to levy penalty against individuals too for not doing the same, added sources.

Waste processing plants are functioning at Kannalli, Seegehalli, Doddabidarakallu, and Chikkanagamangala.

Contractors protest delay in bill payment
The BBMP contractors staged a dharna demanding immediate clearance of pending bills, at BBMP head office on Monday. They alleged that there were severe irregularities in the online bill system and rules were being flouted. The BBMP has so far released Rs 179.32 crore. The contractors alleged that though pending bills must be cleared as per seniority of dues and bills to the tune of Rs 2,200 crore were pending since 2013, the BBMP commissioner and Chief Accounts Officer had cleared the bills for the works carried out in 2015. The contractors asserted that on March 13 this year, the BBMP had given a cheque for Rs 19.94 crore, but it had bounced. Now, they questioned the BBMP’s disparity in clearing the bills. They demanded that the bills be cleared immediately.

Later, addressing the reporters, Opposition party leader Padmanabha Reddy alleged that bills for the works carried out in R.R. Nagar, Yeshwantpur and K.R. Puram were released due to the influence of the powerful MLAs of these three constituencies. Mr Reddy demanded that the CAO must be suspended immediately and Bengaluru minister K.J. George should take action against BBMP Commissioner G. Kumar Naik.

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