The Times of India 24.08.2012
Govt calls in cops for clearing city of garbage
BANGALORE: Deputy chief minister R Ashoka says the government is exploring all options and even deploying cops where needed to sort out the garbage mess before it overwhelms the city and the downpour on Thursday evening threatened to make it worse.
The basic flaw, Ashoka says, is the location of
the landfills. The deputy CM says: "We need to improve basic amenities
in the villages where the landfills have been set up. I've released Rs 5
crore to provide basic infrastructure, roads and sanitation in these
places. I've spoken to the pollution control board officials and the
BBMP to dump garbage in the landfills."
However, A
Sadashivaiah, chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, said:
"We have not lifted the ban on Mavallipura landfill. The BBMP must
submit its compliance report first and we'll take a decision later. As
of now, there is no permission to dump garbage in Mavallipura." THE MUCK STOPS HERE
STINK BOMB
FRIDAY FLASHPOINT: The situation threatens to go out of hand after an
anti-dumping activist dies during a protest on Thursday. Villagers of
Mavallipura call for a Yelahanka bandh; Pollution Board says garbage
can't be dumped there
With protests hotting up in the
suburbs where landfills are located, Bangalore's powers-that-be wrestled
with the mounting heaps of garbage, worsened by rain through the
evening. The BBMP trucks heading out to Mavallipura to dump the city's
12,000 tonnes of accumulated waste were diverted as activists took to
the streets.
Emotions ran high after an anti-garbage dumping
activist died on Thursday in the middle of the protest. The tragic
development came as residents of Mavallipura and 24 other villages in
the neighbourhood began protesting the state government's announcement
that Bangalore's garbage would be dumped in the landfill from Thursday.
An 800-strong police force turned up at the landfill in the morning,
sending tempers soaring. Srinivas Jayaramaiah, 40, who had been
in the forefront of the Mavallipura agitation for over a decade, and
his fellow villagers were part of the agitation against the deployment
of the policemen. Realizing it would not be too long before the garbage
trucks arrived , the villagers began lining the road leading to the
landfill. "Srinivas collapsed even as we were protesting," said B
Srinivas, gram panchayat member of Shivanahalli, near Mavallipura.
Srinivas was rushed to Baptist Hospital, Hebbal , where doctors
declared him brought dead. A doctor said he died of cardiac arrest.
"Other details of his health condition will come to light only after the
autopsy," he said.
Srinivas' brother Venkatesh told TOI the
garbage dumping and its after-effects in the area had upset them deeply.
"He was part of the protests since 2002. He neglected his health and
family," Venkatesh claimed.
Mavallipura villagers have decided
not to cremate Srinivas's body till a CBI probe is ordered. They will
gather at Yelahanka General Hospital around 9am Friday and stage a
day-long protest. The villagers and Srinivas' relatives demanded Rs 25
lakh as compensation for his family.
VILLAGERS ASK FOR ASHOKA
The Mavallipura protesters demanded that home minister R Ashoka, who on
Wednesday had asked KSPCB to allow dumping of garbage in Mavallipura,
come to the village and give them a hearing. Ashoka chose not to go to
Mavallipura.
Ashoka told TOI later that Srinivas' death had
nothing to do with police entering the village or the dumpyard. "They
are separate issues. I have cross-checked . Police were at the dumpyard
only to maintain law and order," he said.
