BENGALURU:After being troubled by smoke rising from burning of waste at the ASC (Army Service Corps) Centre on Old Airport Road for the past six months, the residents of neighbouring Ranka Heights Apartments may finally hope for some respite.
The ASC personnel have been ordered by their superiors to stop burning of waste. Residents said due to the burning of garbage, thick smoke had been entering their homes since long. Besides the apartments, Patel Ram Reddy School in the vicinity, too was affected.
Residents had tried to address the issue by speaking to Army personnel, but were unsure whether they were approaching the right people. “The smoke has been a problem throughout my pregnancy, and now I hate to see my one-month-old baby suffer because of it,” said Vidya Gopal, a resident of the apartment. She said the waste was usually burnt during evenings and sometimes even in the middle of the night. “Citizens have repeatedly reached out to the Army personnel concerned and informed them about the issue, after which it stopped for a while, but resumed again.”
Another resident, Louise Gonzaga, said, “It is our understanding that the waste is burnt both inside the ASC Centre’s property as well as outside. For the past two weeks, the smoke from it has been very severe and it was hard to step outside.” A V Gopal (72), another resident of the apartment, said the issue was that they were not sure if they had been talking to the right people. “Every time, they told us they will take care of it, but no action was being taken. While we respect the defence personnel, I think they didn’t know that they were creating a problem,” he said.
Gunashekar, manager of the apartments and a former army man himself, met the Army personnel from the ASC Centre on Tuesday last and they assured him that the burning will stop. However, the next day, residents said there was thick smoke again in the air, which indicated that waste had been burnt. Gunashekar was told that new recruits had arrived in the Centre for training and they had been setting fire to the waste. In addition, a change in the leadership at the Centre had also caused this, he said.
However, the Defence spokesperson informed The New Indian Express that the personnel had been ordered to put a stop to waste burning on the ASC centre campus.