A Bengaluru resident on Saturday took to Facebook to share the horror of seeing loads of garbage dumped in front of her residence in Indiranagar. While she has accused the workers of operating as a ‘mafia’, the BBMP says that she irked the workers by ‘intervening’ in the issue of streamlining garbage collection.
In a video of the incident uploaded by Sneha Nandihal, who is the president of the Indiranagar 1st Stage resident’s welfare association, a group of people can be seen standing outside the gate to her house, surrounded by heaps of garbage. While some are mute spectators, some others can be seen putting the garbage in front of her door step.
Shaken by the incident, Sneha took to Facebook and said that the garbage was dumped in front of her house at a time when she was away, when her mother and cook were at home.
"Three loads of garbage were dumped with smoke raising upto our terrace. My mother is severely asthmatic and needs oxygen at times," she wrote.
Sneha filed a police complaint on Saturday.
Recounting her prolonged efforts at streamlining the process of garbage collection, Sneha wrote that the BBMP sweepers would collect waste from commercial establishments for monetary benefits.
“They make their money and mix into the residential waste which one, takes up the space meant for residences in the compactor and since its mixed cannot be recycled. Every time I attempted to streamline the system the Corporator and garbage mafia ensured that BBMP did not support us. Why because the more he collects he gets paid more,” Sneha wrote.
“BBMP Officials are on vacation and will attend to it on Thursday and police were watching garbage being dumped upto my doorstep. Is this Goonda raj?” she added.
Condemning the incident, Joint Commissioner (Health and SWM) Sarfaraz Khan told The News Minute that the pourakarmikas and the contractor dumped garbage as a mark of protest against the resident.
“For the last two weeks, there have been issues between the resident and the workers. She did raise her concern with me, and I had assured her to intervene in the matter. I understand that even before I could involve myself in the matter, Sneha had tried to solve the issue herself, which had in turn irked the pourakarmikas. I believe that Sneha should have waited for the officials to intervene in the matter,” Sarfaraz said.
He also refuted the resident’s claim that the BBMP officials were on vacation and that they would attend to the matter only on Thursday.
Yesterday was Ayudha Puja and apart from a few hours when all the officials were conducting puja at their respective offices, nobody is on vacation. I had asked for the garbage to be cleared the moment the matter was brought to notice,” Sarfaraz said.
He said that the pourakarmikas had also filed a complaint against Sneha for harassing and committing atrocities against them.
Saying that he was caught between handling the angry pourakarmikas and the residents, Sarfaraz said, "No doubt dumping garbage was an undignified act. But as the Joint Commissioner, I cannot give more importance to one side. I have now heard everybody's version and will take strict action against whoever is at fault," he said.
Read Sneha Nandihal's entire post here: