BENGALURU: While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has deployed marshals to keep an eye on those dumping garbage on the roadside and penalise them, villages on the outskirts have no one to keep watch.
The villages coming under Bidarahalli Gram Panchayat often witness dumping of waste on the roadside leading to roads getting blocked. Fed up with the nuisance, the panchayat has now announced a cash prize for anyone tipping them off about illegal garbage dumping.
Bidarahalli Gram Panchayat includes eight villages with a population of about 50,000. Though adjacent to the KR Puram Assembly constituency, one of the IT pockets of Bengaluru, it falls outside the BBMP limits, making it easy for garbage contractors to dump waste without taking it to the designated site.
B V Varun (28), a first-time member and president of the panchayat, explained that they are facing this issue for many years. Garbage from the city is illegally dumped during the night on the Kitaganur-Bidarahalli road, he says. “In fact, when we had deputed a security guard at night, no garbage would be dumped. But when they are not there, garbage is dumped, creating nuisance,’’he said.
There are no houses for about half-a-kilometre stretch and it is not possible to find out who dumped garbage. But, determined to put an end to the menace, the panchayat president has announced a cash prize of Rs 5000 for those who catch hold of offenders. “I took the help of a waterman, who goes to every village, to spread the message,” Varun said.”Earlier too, waste was dumped and we sent it back to the BBMP garbage processing unit in our vehicle,’’ he added.
On its part, the panchayat is making all arrangements to process waste generated within its limits and has eight vehicles, one to each village, for door-to-door collection. “On the one hand, we are trying to have our waste processing unit with the help of a self-help group and process the waste generated in our limits. On the other hand, waste from BBMP limits is being dumped here which irks the villagers,” Varun noted.