While Bangalore was crowned the ‘Garden City’ of the country, the children of Government Higher Primary School, Gandhinagar may beg to differ. They would rather prefer calling it ‘Garbage City’.
The smell which emanates from garbage in the area does not allow children to concentrate in class. Despite many complaints from Block Education Officer (BEO), whose office is at the ground floor in the same building, nothing really is done about the issue. Anjenappa, BEO, Gandhinagar said, “I have complained to the BBMP several times about garbage being dumped in front of the school gate. But according to them, there is no other alternative.”
“People defecate near the school building and the garbage is also dumped here which creates lot of problems. However, the BBMP seems to be least interested in addressing this problem,” said a teacher of the Government Higher and Primary School. "We don’t allow children to go outside till the classes are over," the teacher added.
The foul stench from the garbage has affected commercial establishments like juice centres and restaurants and as a result they are losing their customers. “People from all over the area come here to dump garbage. It stinks so bad that the number of customers in my shop are decreasing by the day,” said a shop owner.
When contacted, Dinesh Gundurao, Gandhinagar Constituency MLA said, “There is no other place for dumping garbage. We will soon look into this issue and try to solve it,” he said.
The Gandhinagar main road which is always crowded with people, has a different story to tell. Shridhar, who runs an eatery on the same road said, “I informed the BBMP worker today but he refused to take away the garbage as they were not paid their salary.” With the lack of a public toilets in this area, people come here to defecate, he added. The area is partially filled with plastics, stale food and fruits which eventually becomes the breeding ground for mosquitoes resulting in a number of diseases.