A walkathon to uproot garbage woes of Mandur

DNA Correspondent

Over 150 activists will stage ‘Dumping Saaku’- a 25 km walk from Mandur to Domlur aimed to sensitise the residents of Mandur about a bill instituted to ensure that garbage is not dumped on villagers anymore, to educate them about the benefits of waste segregation and to apologise for all the inconvenience caused by dumping garbage in their village.

The bill mandates the local management of municipal waste and defines how waste should be managed outside the areas of a corporation. It will provide the facilities for localised management of garbage, such as sorting stations, incinerators and recycling plants, and also ensure that garbage cannot be ‘dumped’.

Instead, municipal corporations that do not have waste management facilities, can seek the state government’s approval to enter into a contract with another municipal corporation, for managing its waste.

The contract will be valid for a period of two years. When a municipal corporation gets such a proposal from another corporation, it can accept it by passing a resolution of at least two-thirds of the members present, provided that the rate to be paid by the latter corporation is not less than what is stipulated by the state government.

“The problem today is that contracts last for 30 to 40 years. This is a long term process and we cannot determine its drawbacks,” said Meenakshi Bharat, Loksatta candidate for Malleswaram.

Most village panchayaths or corporations will not allow dumping of waste in their village she said.
Ravi Kumar, a member of the Loksatta party, said, “When a villager protests against the garbage dumped in his village, he gets arrested. With the law being passed, nobody will be able to dump garbage in his village without his permission,”.

According to IIM-B professor Ashwin Mahesh, those participating in ‘Dumping Saaku’ are doing so to acknowledge the unlivable condition created by dumping waste at Mandur and other villages where landfills are located.

“One reason we are going to Mandur, and why everyone in Bangalore should be a part of this walk, is to preserve the idea of decency. When it comes to Mandur, we seem to have forgotten the entire premise of a democracy. What is the point of a democracy if it ignores the plight of a community as large as Mandur?” he asked.

“The walk, we hope, will create awareness among people to take responsibility for their waste and ensure that there is a decentralised management of waste,” he added. 

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