From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Sep 14: The constant problem of Bengalurians over the handling of the city’s garbage, which had assumed alarming proportions during the previous BJP regime under the then Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, seems to have been resolved with the residents of villages around S.Bingipura, in the outskirts of Karnataka’s capital, agreeing to the proposal of establishing a landfill.

State Transport Minister B Ramalinga Reddy, who is also the in charge minister for Bengaluru, held a meeting with the residents of villages around S Bingipura along with the newly elected Mayor of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) B N Manjunatha Reddy and other senior officials on Tuesday.

The residents of villages around the S Bingipura landfill have agreed to allow the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to dump waste there for the next fortnight at least to start with.

With this, clearing of nearly 4,000 tonnes of garbage piled up across parts of south, south-east and east of Bengaluru is expected to resume from next Monday putting an end to fears of a larger garbage crisis ahead of the festivals this week, which have traditionally added another 300 tonnes to the city’s load.

Newly-elected Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy who, along with senior BBMP officials, faced his first big challenge at the helm of the civic body during the visit to the village on Sunday.

Angry residents confronted them and complained about health issues and poor living conditions due to the unscientific dumping of garbage.

The villages, spread over two gram panchayats, differed on their next step as to whether to relent or continue their stance of blocking the trucks.

However, after assurances from the minister, the village leaders have reportedly agreed that they would allow dumping for a fortnight.

The Mayor had appealed to the residents to allow the civic body to dump waste for a month until the waste-processing unit at Chikka Nagamangala starts functioning.

Admitting that the BBMP had erred in not ensuring protection of the people of the villages, Reddy said: “Soil-capping of garbage did not take place resulting in frequent fires. For a month, officials were busy with election work and treatment of waste was affected.”

As negotiations were on between the BBMP and the locals, as many as 140 trucks containing 1,000 tonnes of garbage generated each day were lined up in areas like K R Road.

BBMP was also forced to divert some of them to other plants at Kannahalli, Sigehalli and Subbarayanapalya as well as three bio-methanisation plants in the south zone.

With the garbage dumping set to resume on Monday, BBMP is expected to take at least two days to clear the accumulated garbage before the festivities begin on Wednesday.

Another round of talks are scheduled to be held between the residents of the villages adjoining Bingipura and City in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy again on Tuesday to hammer out a permanent solution to the garbage dumping issue.