BANGALORE: With no end in sight to the Mandur mess and frustrated villagers resorting to protests, the city may become a stinking mess yet again.
While garbage will be collected from homes on Monday, disposing it is likely to be a problem, considering that officials have decided to wait for frayed nerves to calm down in Mandur before going back to them with the city’s garbage.
District Minister Ramalinga Reddy, BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana and pouramakarmikas have assured citizens that garbage will be collected from their homes. But the question really is, what next?
“The Minister, Mayor and Commissioner have asked us to collect garbage from homes and we will do that. But we will not go to Mandur unless they provide police protection to the garbage trucks and promise that none of our trucks or our employees will be harmed,” said Babu, president of the Pourakarmikas’ Association.
Reddy said providing protection is not a problem. But, he said it was not necessary as leaders in Mandur had agreed to garbage being dumped there for the next seven to eight months, the time the state government had asked for.
Be Ready to Pinch Your Nose
“But it may be a little dangerous to send in garbage tonight (Sunday) as tension is still high. In the meantime, we will dispose garbage in other landfills around the city. We are hoping that from Monday night, the situation will be normalised and the villagers understand our predicament,” he said.
Lakshminarayana said alternative garbage disposal arrangements have been. “A reduced amount of garbage will be sent to Mandur and the rest will be disposed of in other landfills,” he said.