BENGALURU: Even as the garbage crisis threatens to worsen, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike may have to face the additional challenge of tackling the waste that will be generated during the Gowri-Ganesha festival on Wednesday and Thursday. Every year, during the festival season, the city sees huge quantities of garbage being generated, especially in and around the market areas.
The city is in the grip of the garbage crisis after S Bingipura village refused to allow any more of Bengaluru’s waste to be dumped there.
At K R Market, where there are 1,300 shops and 1,500 footpath vendors, the festival rush saw the area crowded with buyers on Monday. During the festival, 80,000 to one lakh people visit the market.
According to K R Market Vendors’ Association president Diwakar, on an average, around 100 tonnes of waste per day is generated from the market alone. “The market is stinking. The BBMP authorities cleared waste from the dumpyard near Sirsi Circle flyover on Sunday. But if the garbage crisis continues, it will be unbearable post festival, as around 400 tonnes of waste is expected to be generated. Now that it is raining, the situation will be out of control,” he said.
The BBMP authorities had not cleared the waste dumped near Chandra Bhavan hotel, K R Market area, till Monday morning. “Due to the waste dumped on one side of the road, BMTC buses were not able to move freely. This resulted in a traffic jam,” said a traffic policeman in that area.
After the Mavallipura landfill site was shut in July 2012, BBMP began sending the city’s garbage to Mandur landfill sites, but stopped it in November last year after the villagers staged protests. Then the waste was sent to a landfill site given to Terra firma company at Gundlahalli on Doddaballapur Road.
The quantity of waste was more than the capacity of the site, resulting in the processing unit becoming a mini-landfill site. Villagers there too staged protests about two months ago and the waste burden was dumped on to the Bingipura landfill.
This resulted in heaps of waste lying on roadsides across the city.
The worst hit areas are wards in South and Bommanahalli zones as the waste generated from these places was being sent to the Bingipura landfill site.
District-in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy said, “They have tolerated Bengaluru waste for this long and we are requesting them to do so for one more month. We will not send garbage after that.”Asked about the shifting of the burden from one village to another, he said this practice would stop soon.
“As there was no processing unit here all these years, we had no other option. Now as most of the proposed processing units are commissioned, waste will be sent there,” he added.
BBMP commissioner Kumar Naik told Express that of the seven waste processing units, six had been commissioned. Capacity of these units comes to around 1,900 tonnes. “Once we make sure that the unit is capable of handling garbage as per its capacity, we can stop sending waste to Bingipura and other places,” he explained.
MP Visits Bingipura
Narayana, a villager from Bingipura, said that Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh visited the landfill site and that about 300 people gheraoed him.
The villagers asked the MP if he too was seeking one month’s time like the mayor or if he was with them who want dumping to be stopped with immediate effect.
Suresh said he would support the villagers.
“We won’t allow any garbage trucks. On Monday morning, 25 trucks came and we sent them back,” said Narayana.