BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) may have decided to stop dumping waste at Mandur landfill sites much before the deadline, but villagers are not satisfied. They are now urging the civic agency to start clearing the waste accumulated in their backyard.
After Mandur residents staged a protest in July this year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah intervened and the villagers finally had agreed to allow garbage trucks till November-end. But Palike decided to stop sending garbage from Friday itself.
BBMP Special Commissioner for Solid Waste Management Darpan Jain told Express, “We are stabilising the movement of trucks. Drivers who used to take waste to Mandur have been habituated and that is why they go to Mandur. If we had told them to stop on November 30, they would perhaps have gone there for a couple of days more. That is why we started telling them 10 days before the deadline. We have instructed them not to take any waste there. From December 1, trucks will not be sent there strictly,” he added.
On the other hand, villagers who were happy that trucks have stopped dumping garbage at the landfill, are now keen on having the waste cleared from their backyards.
Srinivasa Gowda, a farmer whose farmland is next to the landfill said they were thankful to BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana and Special Commissioner Darpan Jain who had worked hard for the past many weeks.
“Now, I would request the state government and the officials to make arrangements to clear all the accumulated waste,” he said.
He and other villagers are gearing up to celebrate Oora Habba on December 1. Mahadeva, a Mandur resident, said they should not be ignored now just because the BBMP has stopped sending garbage. “All these days, they were eager to give us water, better roads and other facilities. At Mavallipura, nothing has been done even after two years. We don’t want to be treated like them,” he added.