TMC, forest dept fight it out over garbage

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) authorities have locked horns with the forest department officials over the issue of garbage disposal.

While forest department officials allege that the TMC has been dumping garbage on forest land, the municipal authorities maintain that nothing of the sort has been done.

At present, the entire city’s garbage is being dumped on a private land behind TMC octroi post at Ghodbunder Road. But after three years of dumping, there is hardly any space left and as a result the fresh garbage is spilling over in the Vasai creek on one side and inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) on the other.

“We noticed that garbage was spilling over in the national park boundary and decided to take action to stop it. The matter was brought to the notice of the TMC officials and even notices in this regard were issued,” said PN Munde, field director, SGNP.

Sources said that the TMC officials intended to use a part of SGNP land for dumping trash for another three months, as the new dumping and recycling facility at Daighar would be ready by then.

In a similar case, the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) authorities also tried to use forest land to dump garbage few months ago. But the forest department officials took stern action and denied them permission.