BHUBANESWAR: With Daruthenga villagers buying more time, the deadlock over the transport of the city’s waste to the Bhuasuni dump yard continued on Monday even as Mayor Sulochana Das and BMC Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange exuded confidence that the matter will be resolved by Tuesday.
“We hope the matter will be resolved by Tuesday as the villagers have sought a day more to convey their final decision on the matter,” Das told this paper.
She said the civic body has assured the villagers that it will implement its action plan in a time-bound manner to ensure that waste transport to Bhuasuni -- the designated site for dumping Capital’s garbage -- is completely stopped in the next nine to 10 months.
Daruthenga sarpanch Tapan Chakrabarty said though gram sabha meetings were held on Sunday evening and Monday morning, the villagers and local leaders could not reach a consensus on giving a go-ahead to the civic body to continue the dumping activity at the site, located close to the village.
Another round of village-level meetings will be convened and the decision of the villagers will be conveyed to the Corporation by Tuesday morning, he said. As the matter remained unresolved, the waste collection continued to remain affected across the city on the day. Trucks carrying garbage had to wait for hours in front of the temporary transit station (TTS) near Sainik School to dump the trash at the location.
The BMC was also forced to engage three to four excavators to create space at the TTS for the dumping of waste as the non-lifting of trash from the site for nearly three weeks has turned it into a heap of garbage.
BMC utilises the land allotted at Bhuasuni for the dumping of waste as per an order of the Orissa High Court, said, officials. Kulange said garbage shifting will start from the TTS as soon as the villagers withdraw their protest.
“We have assured the villagers that transportation of garbage from TTS to Bhuasuni dump yard will be completely stopped by August 2023. Besides, bio-mining as per NGT order will also be started soon to clear trash from the area and restore it back to its earlier position,” he said, adding the civic body expects the villagers will agree to the proposal.