“The city generates around 1,400 metric tonnes of waste every day. In
the first few days of villagers’ agitation, we stocked the city’s waste
at the garbage ramp in Hadapsar. Since then, we have not been able to
clear garbage in the city. Around 2,500 metric tonnes of waste is
currently accumulated which we will start clearing from Tuesday,” said
Suresh Jagtap, head of the PMC’s solid waste management department,
adding that the city will be waste-free in a day or two.

Residents of the village will allow garbage-carrying vehicles to enter
the depot on Tuesday morning. After a fire broke out at the garbage
depot on April 7, residents had prevented the civic body’s vehicles from
entering the area.

Bhagwan Bhadale, president of Kachara Depot
Hatav Sangharsh Samiti at Phursungi Uruli, said, “Around 99% of the
fire at the depot is under control. Our agitation will come to an end on
Tuesday morning. The PMC’s vehicles carrying waste can resume their
work from 7am onwards.”

Municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak,
the officials involved in municipal solid waste management and
representatives from Phursungi Uruli attended a meeting under the
leadership of MP Supriya Sule at the PMC. The garbage depot falls under
Sule’s constituency.

“A slew of important decisions have been
taken during the meeting. We will inspect how civic authorities
translate the decision into reality. If they fail, we will reinitiate
our agitation and block vehicles carrying waste to the garbage depot at
Phursungi-Uruli,” said Dilip Mehta, president of environment
conservation committee at Phursungi gram panchayat.

At the
meeting, it was decided that only segregated dry waste would be brought
to the garbage depot for processing from August 1. “Sule has asked the
villagers to take videos of the type of waste being brought to the depot
from August 1,” Bhadale said.

Relocation of the carcass
utilization plant at the Phursungi Uruli garbage depot was also agreed
upon. It will be closed from June 1.The civic body has been outsourcing
the work to a private firm at the union government-funded plant since
its inception in 2002. Animal carcasses are supposed to get
scientifically disposed of here.

Closed circuit television
(CCTV) cameras will be installed at the garbage processing plant to
ensure that the rejected waste is not set on fire in order to get rid of
it.

In addition to this, the villagers, who lost 40 acres of
land due to fire, would be given financial compensation from the state
government. “Sule promised that she would personally look into it and
take up the issue with the chief minister,” Bhadale said.

Relatives of project-affected villagers will be provided permanent jobs.
The civic body has sent a proposal to the state government regarding
the same.