Police to escort garbage vehicles in Nashik

Police to escort garbage vehicles in Nashik
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NASHIK, FEB 15: In an unprecedented situation, the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), has been compelled to seek police help in garbage disposal, as local residents surrounding the existing as well as the proposed garbage dump sites have been up in arms against litter in their neighbourhood. The NMC is in a fix over solid waste disposal as residents of Panchavati and Adgaon areas have started picketing the dump at Adgaon Naka, physically preventing garbage tractor-trailors from entering the site.

Some women of the neighbourhood have started an indefinite dharna, demanding that garbage be dumped elsewhere. Consequently, garbage has been piling up in various areas of the city and the NMC has sought police help. The women and the local action committee have demanded fulfillment of the NMC's assurance that garbage would not be dumped at the site after February 9.

Attempts by Mayor Dr Shobha Bachhav and Municipal Commissioner Krishnakant Bhoge to convince the protestors have failed. Both of them have appealed to the agitators that the NMC be allowed to dump garbage at the old site for another three months till the new site is ready. A former mayor Prakash Mate has offered his land near Adgaon to the NMC for three months as an alternative site, but local residents, farmers and even his brother, Prabhakar Mate, have opposed the move on grounds that it would be a nuisance to people and farmers. The existing garbage dump is located on a plot of 52 acres along the Mumbai-Agra national highway about five kilometres north of the city.

The city generates about 350 tonnes of garbage daily which is dumped at the site. However, over the past five years, population in the area around it, towards Panchavati and Adgaon, has increased manifold. Moreover, officials of the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. have been demanding shifting of the dump for the past several years on grounds that the increased bird activity hampers the sorties of MiG aircraft overhauled in their factory located about 15 km from the site.

About two years ago, the NMC acquired a 100 acre plot of land near Pathardi, about eight kilometres south of the city. It was decided that garbage would be converted into organic manure and fuel pellets at the new site. However, farmers from surrounding villages led by local MLA Babanrao Gholap, have objected to the dumping of garbage in their neighbourhood. The protestors have also pointed out that the new site was near the ancient Hindu and Buddhist caves (a heritage site protected by the Archaeological Society of India), the proposed Dadasaheb Phalke memorial and a Buddhist stupa.

The NMC has decided to prepare the new site at Pathardi within three months and till then continue the use of the old site at Adgaon Naka with the help of police.