In Mumbai, even a garbage dump needs to be safeguarded. The municipal corporation has sought police protection against anti-social elements and ragpickers at the Deonar dumping ground.
The menace has grown to such an extent that contractors are finding it difficult to carry out work at the site. For several decades now, the garbage generated by Mumbai has been disposed of at Deonar. Now that the site is to be closed, however, the Bombay high court has directed the corporation to fill it scientifically.
The BMC has appointed Tatva Global Environment to carry out the work of partial closure and maintenance of the existing dump on a design, build, own, operate,transfer (DBOOT) model.
To carry out scientific closure of the dump, a project that is expected to take two years, the BMC needs to build a boundary wall. But anti-social elements and ragpickers are apparently disrupting the work as the wall will end their access to the site.
An official from the BMC’s solid waste management department said the anti-social elements run illegal businesses at the dumping site while the ragpickers’ livelihood depends on the dump. “Once the boundary wall is completed, their businesses will shut,” the official said.
Tatva Global Environment wrote recently to the BMC saying it was ready to pay for security.The BMC has asked the police to provide protection.
Additional municipal commissioner RA Rajeev has written to AV Parasnis, additional director-general of police, State Reserve Police, to provide protection to the employees at the site.
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