Bhubaneswar, July 28: Tension gripped the area around the Bhuasuni dump yard this morning after civic body officials reached the spot with nearly 300 police personnel to dump garbage that had been piling up across the city for the past five days.
There has been a deadlock at the yard since last Saturday with villagers of Daruthenga, which is located near the Bhuasuni dump yard, demanding that it be shifted.
The police also detained around 40 villagers, including sarpanch Prashant Kumar Rout, for obstructing movement of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation officials. Sources said hundreds of villagers gathered in the area when they found out about the corporation's plan to dump garbage in the yard. They also tried to stop the dump trucks.
An official said that amid the villagers' protests, they unloaded as many as 106 dump trucks at Bhuasuni. While mayor Ananta Narayan Jena monitored garbage loading at the Sainik School transit station, municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar, along with Khurda collector Niranjan Sahu and police commissioner Y.B. Khurania, supervised the unloading at the Bhuasuni dump yard.
The civic body, after a high-level meeting on July 19, had decided to relocate the dump yard to the nearby Tulsadeipur mouza, but stuck to the plan of setting up the proposed waste-to-energy plant at Bhuasuni. The decision angered the Daruthenga villagers, who had demanded complete relocation of the dump yard and the plant to Tulsadeipur.
"The city was suffering because the Bhuasuni dumping ground had been locked up for so long. We were forced to take action today and took police help to unload garbage at the dump yard. We have successfully unloaded 106 dump trucks," said Jena.
He hinted at more stringent action against the troublemakers from tomorrow. "It will take nearly one month to construct the approach road to Tulsadeipur so that it may be utilised as new dumping ground. Till that time, we will use Bhuasuni for garbage dumping purposes. We are ready face any kind of protest," said the mayor. According to sources, Jena also met and discussed the issue with chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
The civic body, in collaboration with a private sanitation agency, collects garbage from 35 points and dumps it near the Sainik School, from where it is transported to the Bhuasuni yard. However, with the Bhuasuni dump yard being locked up for days, the transit station was overflowing with garbage and the sanitation workers were unable to lift waste from other parts of the city.
"The waste generated in our area has not been lifted for the past three days. This has led to a stinking and unhygienic environment in the entire locality. With the dump yard at Bhuasuni being locked up, not only has the civic body been affected, it has also taken a toll on the city's cleanliness. Today's corporation move is justified," said Damana resident Nirakar Singh.
Moreover, the civic body has also decided to raise the boundary wall of the temporary transit station near Sainik School. At present, it spreads over 6.8 acres. Once the walls are raised, it will be able to take in more garbage.
