Sunday, August 21, 2011

Urali villagers threaten to ban dumping of garbage - Times of India

Urali villagers threaten to ban dumping of garbage - Times Of India You are here: Home>CollectionsUrali villagers threaten to ban dumping of garbageUmesh Isalkar, TNN Aug 5, 2011, 11.15pm IST

PUNE: The overflowing leachate at the garbage depot and the failure of the civic body to make arrangements for its treatment became heated issues during the review meeting on development works of Phursungi-Urali on Friday.


The villagers threatened that they would not allow garbage containers to enter the village and declared that the final decision on this will be taken after a meeting with civic officials on August 11.


"The PMC is not serious about proper management of garbage at the landfill site. Setting up a leachate treatment plant has been a long-pending requirement of the depot but the PMC could not fulfil this simple requirement. Garbage segregation, which is an integral part of waste management, has also been thrown to wind by the PMC officials. Why should we bear the filth, stench and ensuing health hazards for all these," asked Dilip Mehta, president of the environment protection committee of Phursungi.


The villagers grilled the PMC's the newly appointed officer on special duty Pramod Yadav and officials of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for the administration's failure on various fronts of municipal solid waste management They put a bottle filled with leachate in front of the officials and demanded solution to the problem.


"We asked the PMC and MPCB officials why they have not taken strict action against the Hanjer garbage processing plant for not processing the daily amount of garbage and letting it pile up and why they have not filed a criminal case against the operator of the plant for openly releasing leachate into the environment without treating it properly," said Sanjay Harpale, deputy sarpanch, Phursungi grampanchayat.


TOI in a special report published on August 4, had reported how the leachate was flowing all over the garbage depot, causing health hazards threat to the families staying nearby. The leachate eventually flows into drainage lines that open into the Mula-Mutha river, which is a gross violation of environment norms.


"The final decision on preventing garbage containers from entering the village will be taken after a meeting with PMC officials on August 11," said Ranjit Raskar, member of Phursungi grampanchayat.


PMC official Yadav, however, asked the villagers to allow the administration some time to prepare an action plan based on the works prioritised by villagers.




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