BANGALORE: At a time when garbage disposal has become a major problem for the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has served a notice on the civic body asking it to furnish details of places where the city's 2,200 tonnes of daily waste is being disposed.

The notice follows frequent complaints from villagers, who are angry over the increasing stench and potential health hazards from the garbage dumped in their surroundings.

The BMP, in turn, has issued letters to all private garbage contractors, entrusted with cleaning activity in the city, asking them to give details about places where they are dumping the waste.

According to a member of the Bangalore Mahanagara Swachate Lorry Maalikara Mattu Guttigedarara Sangha, the letters were issued three days ago. "We are helpless. As per the tender conditions, we have to dump the garbage in places identified by the BMP. And because the BMP has not designated any dumping yards, we are doing it on our own. So we have replied saying we are dumping in designated dumping yards identified by the BMP," a contractor said.

When contacted, Senior Environment Officer of the Municipal Solid Waste Management unit of the KSPCB, P.N. Sirsi, confirmed that the Board has issued a notice to the BMP. "We know that the civic body has started work on the scientific landfills. We have also cleared the project. But the work should expedite. Because unless the landfills are ready, it will be difficult for us to control pollution in the vicinity of the quarries where the garbage is dumped," he said.

Mr. Sirsi said angry villagers had complained to the Board pointing that the BMP is not treating the dumped garbage with the chemicals (EM solution). The villagers wanted the Board to stop the civic body from dumping waste in their areas as it caused serious health hazards. "We have learnt that water in borewells in two to three km radius of the areas where the garbage is dumped, is contaminated and people can no longer tolerate this," he said.

Following a Supreme Court order directing all metros, including Bangalore, to set up scientific landfills, the BMP has permitted a Hyderabad-based private firm, Ramkey Infrastructure Ltd., to go ahead with the project in Mavallipura. Recently, the State Government allotted 175 acres of land on Kanakapura Road for a scientific landfill.

"Work is affected because we are facing a hostile crowd in Mavallipura. We are doing our best from our side," official sources in the BMP said.

Garbage clearance

With the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) authorities having agreed on Friday to accept 600 tonnes of waste for another 20 days, garbage clearance improved in the city on Saturday.

The sources said that top BMP officials have managed to convince the KCDC authorities and a quarry owner near Mavallipura to cooperate with the civic body. "This will take care of waste in the South and West zones. In the east zone, we are sending the vehicles all the way up to Hoskote, Mandur and Kolar," the sources added.

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