Indian Express 26.02.2010
Dump fire still smouldering, pall of smoke hangs over Uruli, Phursungi
Express News Service Tags : pollution, garbage Posted: Friday , Feb 26, 2010 at 0437 hrs ]
Pune:
Firemen at Uruli Devachi garbage depot on Thursday. The fire is expected to continue burning for 15 days Sandeep Daundkar
A Fire at Uruli Devachi and Phursungi, the city’s lone garbage dump, on Wednesday has the villagers up in arms against the municipal corporation for dragging its feet for the last five years over shifting the dump.
Yesterday’s fire will take at least 15 days to put out and people residing in over 4,000 households in the area will once again develop breathing trouble, said a Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) official. The new deadline to shift out the garbage dump is May 2010 though an alternative site has yet not been identified. There have been over 100 incidents of fire at the site in the last two years.
Smoke is still coming out from the dumping site. The PMC had rushed in 10 fire tenders to put out the fire while around 100 water tankers have also been pushed into service. “The fire has created a serious health problem for villagers,” Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal said after visiting the site and meeting the villagers. Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade too met the villagers and assured them of making all efforts to put out the fire as soon as possible.
It is unfortunate that the villagers have to suffer, the Mayor said adding, “The villagers’ protest is justified as they have been urging the civic body for long to stop open dumping of waste. They have been given assurances but nothing has happened.”
The Mayor put the blame on the civic administration. “I personally gave extension to the deadline for stopping open dumping at the site to May. However, the civic administration has been slow in performing their duties.”
Uruli Devachi resident Sanjay Harpale said, “The civic body has failed to deliver despite twice extending the deadline to look for an alternative site. We will intensify the agitation by stopping the dumping vehicles from entering the village if the fire is not put out immediately.”
“We won’t relent unless all the 144 elected representatives of the PMC visit the village and experience the sufferings of the villagers,” he said.
Rajpal said he would call a meeting of all corporators in next few days to discuss the matter and urge to speed up the process of setting up garbage processing plants at four different locations. He said the civic body should start a processing plant at a five-acre plot in Kothrud that was initially allotted for the same purpose and later sanctioned for a museum in the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji.
