Kumbalgudu panchayat to stop sweeping garbage under carpet

The Kumbalgudu panchayat has got the town into a fine mess.

By Bhanu Teja

BANGALORE (Sept. 13)—Kumbalgudu, an entry point for Bangalore, has long “welcomed” visitors to the state capital with the sight of garbage strewn by the side of the Mysore Road, but the situation may be about to improve.

The panchayat town council has decided to call for private tenders for solid waste management as it is unable to manage the task on its own.

Residents of the town have been facing hygiene problems due to improper solid waste management for more than five years.

“I’m not able to do my business properly,” Kamalamma, a vegetable vendor said. “My customers always suggest I shift from this place [near a garbage dump], but I have nowhere else to go.”

An empty plot of land between a hotel and a bakery on the Mysore Road is filled with garbage. The bakery owner’s house is in the same building.

The bakery owner, Raghu, said: “Every day, when we get up in the morning we don’t smell fresh air—we breathe this garbage smell. Most of the hotel waste is dumped in that land plot.”

Town elder Veerayya said that as well as causing hygiene problems, the panchayat’s slapdash waste management has ruined the ecological system of the Vrushabhavati River, which flows through Kumbalgudu.

The river, which is effectively a drain, has been targeted for rejuvenation by the Karnataka state government.        

People have registered many complaints regarding the solid waste over the years, but the panchayat had avoided taking a firm step to deal with the problem—until now.

Trash dumped on riverbanks, wasteland

At present the panchayat uses a middleman to remove the town’s rubbish. The contractor brings several workers to the town and pays them Rs. 250 each for a day’s work.

The workers dump the waste on the banks of the Vrushabhavati River and on unused land in the outskirts of Bangalore.

“The BBMP [Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the city corporation] shifts the waste from these lands to Malur Dump on the Airport Road,” Maninath, assistant regional officer of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, said. “But this is a temporary solution.”

Job to be put out to tender

The panchayat has finally woken up to how serious this issue seriously and will introduce a tender system for waste management.

Mrs. Bindu, public development officer of Kumbalgudu panchayat, said, “We haven’t decided the date and budget of the tender, but it will be finalized soon.”