Bengaluru: The Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) stocked up at the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) plant at Somasundarapalya in HSR Layout caught fire last week triggering panic among area residents. They warned that over 10 tonnes of RDF stocked at the plant is a ticking bomb and if the situation is not contained, the entire area would go up in flames as RDF is highly inflammable.
The struggle to shut down the plant has been going on for the past few years and in the run-up to the state assembly election, MLA Satish Reddy had promised to shut down the plant on May 16, a day after the counting got over, the residents said.
Mr Kamesh Rastogi, a member of KHHSP, said, “We have seen fumes three times in the last two weeks and the condition at the KCDC plant is pathetic. The authorities have ignored our pleas. The fuel is highly inflammable and if it catches fire, the whole area will be ablaze in no time.”
He said that during their meeting with BBMP Commissioner Maheshwar Rao, they came to know that he had been wrongly informed by his officers that the RDF had been removed from the plant premises. But the residents showed him a video of a mountain of RDF.
A senior BBMP official told Deccan Chronicle that they are working on containing the stench emanating from the plant, but it is not possible to shut it down.
A resident lamented that after the election, there is no sign of either the MP or the MLA, who had promised to close the plant.
