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BMC not helping its 'Beat Plastic Pollution'?

According to Gopal Jhaveri, they kept requesting BMC to take up the cleaning at bigger level and involve more machinery in order to rejuvenate Poisar before the arrival of monsoons

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(Left) An image of the mouth of Poisar river; (right) Poisar locals have taken it upon themselves to clean the area, which, they allege has been ignored by the BMC
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While on one hand BMC has been trying to showcase its commitment toward 'beat plastic pollution' mission -- the theme for this World Environment Day -- it will also be responsible for tonnes of plastic entering the sea through Malad creek as India's richest civic body has ignored pleas of a citizen body, that has been cleaning up the mouth of Poisar river every Sunday for the past 27 weeks.

It was on December 3, 2017, that members of River March, a community-led initiative for revival of Mumbai's rivers, initiated a clean-up drive, but were disappointed that BMC kept its role limited and only did little extra when top politicians joined citizens.

While the mouth of Poisar, where several slums exist belongs to the forest department, citizens said that the waste management has to be done by BMC.

According to Gopal Jhaveri, Founder of River March, they kept requesting BMC to take up the cleaning at bigger level and involve more machinery in order to rejuvenate Poisar before the arrival of monsoons. Yet, the scenario on ground seems to be the same. Jhaveri said that the BMC has now pulled all the garbage towards the banks and left it there for it to be back in the river once it begins to rain.

Jhaveri also raised questions over BMC's desilting work stating what have contractors cleaned if all the waste and garbage is still in the river.

"About 20 to 30 volunteers of River March gathered every Sunday and cleared garbage from the mouth of the river but there was very little we could do as apart from plastic, sewage from toilets, human waste, animal carcasses were also dumped here. Hence, we kept pleading BMC for extensive cleaning up and a proper plan but they paid little heed," Rajeev Kothari of River March said.

"We have recived tremendous response from residents especially children staying in the Kranti Nagar slums as every Sunday several of them joined us in cleaning and told us that they have even stopped throwing garbage in the river," said Jhaveri in relief.

However, a senior BMC official said that it were the slums that were constanty dumping waste and trash.

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