Villagers cry foul over waste plant
It is a catch-22 situation for the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC). After a judicial rap, it intensified momentum to appoint an agency to recycle garbage into compost at its defunct waste management plant at Dhavgi village in Uttan on a Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer pact. However, the move did not go down well with villagers who staged a symbolic protest at the civic headquarters in Bhayandar on Thursday.
“As per the National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders, the MBMC was bound to shift the plant to an earmarked plot in Sakvar (Vasai) within 18 months and till then initiate scientific disposal. However, unmindful of their in-oath commitment, the MBMC is learned to have inked a 7year deal to restart the project. This will not be tolerated,” said Leo Collasso.
Less than five years after the MBMC won accolades for being the state’s first civic body to successfully initiate a garbage recycling project in 2008, the plant ceased operations since 2013. Unmindful of the fatal consequences on the environment and the local populace, the MBMC has been blatantly dumping tonnes of waste on the hillocks near the defunct plant. Reacting to the scorching summer heat, the accumulated garbage, which apparently starts emitting methane, triggers massive fires which cause intense medical complications.
To oppose the unscientific disposal, villagers had moved the NGT seeking immediate shifting of the plant and illegal dump yard. It may be recalled that the villagers had launched a massive agitation in 2009 by restricting entry of garbage trucks to the facility for several weeks. The agitation was called off after an assurance of shifting the facility; this was not before a brutal lathi charge by cops on protesters.