Anisha Sheth| The News Minute | June 4, 2014 | 4.07 pm ISTThe Bangalore Mayor’s assurance on social media that Mandur’s waste disposal problem will be solved “within couple of weeks”, would have been great, except that this is not the first time he is saying it.For the last nine years, Mandur, a village outside Bangalore, has been a dumping ground for the waste of the state’s capital. Bruhat Bangaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has done little to ensure that the waste is disposed off in a scientific manner. What’s worse is the level of pollution and animal menace that the 169-acre landfill has created.Mayor Katte Sathya said on his Facebook page: “Yes, we are trying to solve this problem within couple of weeks”. This was on the second day of protests by the villagers demanding that the authorities clean-up their village and put in place a scientific system to dispose of the waste.Last year, in a meeting with the chief minister, the villagers of Mandur and the BBMP authorities had reached an agreement that within a year, the latter would create infrastructure and procedure to ensure that the waste was disposed off scientifically. That deadline expired on May 31. One whole year, in which the villagers of Mandur saw no change in the landfill, except that more garbage was piled up. Now, they have dogs roaming their streets at night in pack of dozens. Their water has turned unhealthy – unfit for drinking or farming. On June 1 this year, Mandur’s residents stopped lorries from dumping waste into their backyards.On the third day of protests, the police imposed Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code prohibiting more than three people to assemble at a time: thereby effectively preventing the villagers from continuing their protest against BBMP authorities and the firm hired to manage the landfill, Srinivasa Gayathri Resource Recovery Pvt Ltd. At the time of filing this report, police had arrested 58 people and slapped cases on them under Sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Srinivas, a villager, told The News Minute that the majority of these are women.In the light of all this, the Honourable Mayor’s assurances reek of hollowness. Wonder how many friends he has in Mandur.Here’s the full text of the Mayor’s Facebook post:Dear Friends,I saw many comments on Mandur dumping yard.Yes, we are trying to solve this problem within couple of weeksHow can we solve this problem?Shortly we will be installing 3 to 4 garbage segregation machines which would help us to solve the problem by converting garbage to gas, electricity or another useful substance that can help nature.Even today we have discussed about plastic banning but we have told officials to ban plastic which below subsistence level.We have passed orders in such a way that each every day there will be officials in mandur to monitor garbage mess.In another couple of weeks there will be difference in garbage Bangalore issue.Let's hope for better n let's join our hands to solve this problem.Thank youKatte Sathya