The heat PMC's feeling is from garbage fire

Piling up of garbage in the city is not only spreading dirt and stink, but the piled up garbage is also posing danger of spreading fire as some people are setting the piled up garbage on fire. Pune fire brigade has received as many as 83 calls regarding garbage fire in just 13 days of February.

PMC sends garbage to Phursungi and Uruli for processing, but since the processing capacity of the plant has dropped down, the villagers of these areas are not allowing PMC staffers to unload the garbage at the depot. Because of this, over 5000 metric tonnes of garbage is piling up in various parts of the city.

Now, since the garbage is spreading stink and dirt around it, people have started setting that garbage on fire, which is posing a bigger danger.

Prashant Ranpise, deputy chief fire officer of Pune Fire Brigade said, "On Thursday, some unidentified persons burnt a container outside Prabhat theatre on fire, because of which a car parked near the container also caught fire. This is not a lone incident. We are getting nearly six to seven calls of garbage fire daily."

"Ever since the city is facing problem due to piling up of garbage, we have received as many as 83 complaints of garbage catching fire between February 1 and 13, which is more than double the complaints which we normally receive of these sort,\" Ranpise said.

When Suresh Jagtap, head of solid waste management department of PMC, was contacted regarding the piling up garbage, he said, \"We are constantly holding meetings with the villagers and trying to find some solution to the problem."

anurag.bende@dnaindia.net