It was in February that more than 1,500 men, women and children had hit the streets of Bengaluru on a Saturday to protest against the apathy meted out to them.
Residents of Somasundarapalya and adjoining areas such as Kudlu - Haralukunte - Hosapalya are fed up with the unbearable stench that they have to deal with, emanating from the Karnataka Composting Development Corporation (KCDC) unit in the neighbourhood.
They allege that the stench comes in their way of daily life without any warning and at odd hours. Sometimes, the situation stays bad for hours if not a whole day.
“The problem has gone to unbearable levels since March 10,” Krishna Kumar, a resident of the area says.
“Today I woke up at 3.30am with a sudden gush of foul smell. I had put a post on the residents’ group stating the same but later realised that many of us are wide awake due to this,” he narrates.
“Today it was there till as late as 9.40am, usually on days it goes away by 8am,” he said.
"We have been fooled by everybody starting from our MLA to our corporator. BBMP JC Sarfaraz Khan promised us within six months that our problem will be solved. That was three years ago," another resident Kamesh Rastogi said.
"They claim that they are taking away 90-100 tonnes daily, but every time we see there is unprocessed garbage lying on the ground. Not even a single standard operating procedure (SOP) is being followed. Everyday some area will be affected within a 3 km radius. This is summer time, we cannot keep our windows closed. As law-abiding citizens, we are trying to escalate the matter as high as possible," he added.
The residents have time and again approached the authorities over the issue but no favourable response or action has been forthcoming.
Even before the peaceful demonstration, students of the area had done a postcard campaign back in December 2016.
But that too had failed to elicit any response from the authorities.
The local MLA who is apparently out of bounds for the residents until recently (keeping in mind the elections), too has been of little help.
The other major issue which the residents point out is the alarming amount of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) accumulated in the unit.
RDF is the product that’s obtained after processing municipal solid waste to separate the noncombustible from the combustible portion.
Speaking to TNM earlier on the issue, Dr Shanti, a general medicine practitioner in the area had said the stench is responsible for many diseases.
“Nasal stuffiness, throat irritation, coughing, wheezing, eye and skin irritation are very common. The high percentage of pollen and other allergens in the air cause allergies,” she told TNM.
But the BBMP officials remain dismissive of the residents’ problems.