The large mounds of accumulated garbage at Mandur village, about 30 km from Bengaluru, will be incinerated, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. He also promised to bring waste-to-energy plants to the garbage-ridden city.
At least 1,800 tonnes of waste was being dumped daily at a landfill in Mandur since 2008. The dumping stopped in December 2014 after widespread public outrage. Today, lakhs of tonnes of garbage lie unprocessed in Mandur.
Parameshwara, who is also the minister in-charge for Bengaluru affairs, was replying to a question raised by Yeshwantpur legislator S T Somashekhar, who complained that his constituency had turned into ‘Kasavanthapura’ as five waste processing units are located there.
“Bengaluru has grown from 250 sq km to 800 sq km, so you can imagine the increase in garbage generation. The city produces 4,000 tonnes of household garbage whereas bulk generators contribute 1,500 tonnes daily. Totally, nearly 6,000 tonnes of garbage is generated every day. Collection and transportation of garbage is a huge problem,” Parameshwara said.
He added that he recently visited France to study waste-to-energy conversion plants. “With these plants, waste can be incinerated, which means we won’t have to dump waste anywhere,” he said.
When Mahadevapura legislator Arvind Limbavali pointed out that the waste-to-energy plan had failed at Mandur, which comes under his constituency, Parameshwara said the government is planning to incinerate the accumulated garbage in Mandur.
The Kanahalli, Seegehalli, Doddabidarakallu, Lingadheeranahalli and Subbarayanapalya processing units - located in the Yeshwantpur constituency - together receive 167 tonnes of waste daily. Locals have protested the functioning of these units due to the foul smell emanating from there.
“I’m not able to walk around in my own constituency because of the foul smell,” Somashekhar said. Yelahanka legislator S R Vishwanath joined the chorus and said the foul smell was a problem in his constituency as well.
Parameshwara added that there was no proposal before the state government to close down any waste processing units in Bengaluru.