BENGALURU: Residents of Electronics City led a massive tweetstorm, ratcheting up 34,000-plus tweets on Sunday, demanding that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) shut down the Chikkanagamangala Solid Waste Management (SWM) plant as it emanates a stench, and that it is also affecting the health and wellbeing of residents.
The locals have been facing a problem for the past two years now, and had pointed out that the stench gets so severe on some days that it lasts almost 20 hours. October 26 was one such day. “The stench started at 9:30am and lasted till 3am on October 27. We have complained multiple times to officials about the water pollution caused by the plant, and the menace of flies in the locality.
We have been consistently reminding BBMP of these issues, but there has been no action,” said Deepu Chandran, a resident. With their pleas going unnoticed, they decided to take up the issue on twitter, tagging BBMP SWM Special Commissioner Randeep D, BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad and Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya.
@innovative_ans tweeted, “The disgusting smell keeps coming from the Chikkanamanagala SWM Plant the whole day. DO we have the right to fresh air? Pathetic smell coming 24x7.” @KailasKPillai said, “Our lives also matter!! Why should we smell the waste produced by the whole Bangalore?!! Please composte waste at the source itself. Don’t bring hundreds of tons waste to Electronic City to make our life hell.”
The residents stated that KSPCB had asked BBMP to implement leachate treatment facilities in the plant, but there been no movement on the ground.
The residents have also been demanding installation of odour measurement devices at the plant for the past one-and-a-half years, but approval for it has not come so far. KSPCB, in its notice, had asked BBMP to conduct ground water testing in 50m periphery of the plant. The residents had also written to the CM, BBMP administrator and BBMP commissioner and are awaiting their responses.
“We had complained to KSPCB and even blocked trucks to protest against water pollution by the SWM plant. The borewell system from the nearby lake is the only source of water for our village folk and cattle. This BBMP plant will spoil groundwater for sure. We wanted to do a full protest too. But we didn’t get permission from the ACP due to Covid-19 restrictions,” said Nirupama P, one of the organisers of the tweetstorm.