BENGALURU: The protest by thousands of cleaners and drivers associated with Bangalore Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) has started to show its impact in some areas, as tonnes of waste has piled at City Market and near Shivajinagar. Meanwhile, the protesters reached out to the secretary to Deputy Chief Minister seeking his appointment.
The agitators say that the BBMP Chief Commissioner has failed in addressing their issue of regularising their services or bringing them under the Direct Payment System, and that only the DCM can solve this.
“Due to thousands of cleaners and drivers taking part in a strike at Freedom Park, the issue of waste getting piled has been reported at few places, especially at KR Market and Shivajinagar. Soon the problem will intensify. We will not call off the strike until the issue of regularisation of service or direct payment to cleaners and drivers is addressed,” said Thyagaraj, heading the agitation.
Meanwhile, an official from Bangalore Solid Waste Management Limited, a waste management division of BBMP said, that although thousands of such workers had gone on strike, the department managed effective collection and disposal of waste on Thursday. “At present, there is no issue, as over 6,000 pourakarmikas were deployed to collect and transport the waste. Only after a day or two, the impact will be known.”
Simultaneously, traders from KR Market have raised the issue of bad smell from garbage pile during summer. “Due to garbage pile and leachate, bad smell emanates and we are unable to sit and conduct our business. We request the BBMP officials to deploy more men and clear the waste,” said SN Asif, President of Sagar Welfare Association in KR Market.