Bhubaneswar, May 24: The government has decided to go ahead with its 11-megawatt waste-to energy plant project at Bhuasuni on the city outskirts. A public hearing on the project will be held on June 6.
The project has been hanging fire due to opposition by local villagers citing that it would cause air pollution. They had also knocked the doors of Orissa High Court and the National Green Tribunal. The villagers had boycotted the panchayat polls in February in protest against the energy plant project.
But Orissa High Court and the Calcutta bench of the National Green Tribunal have given the green signal to the project, making it easier for the state government to go ahead with it. The government today decided to go ahead with the project at a meeting of officials chaired by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi. It was decided at the meeting that a public hearing would be conducted by the Odisha State Pollution Control Board on June 6. The police was asked to provide all help for successful conduct of the hearing.
Today's meeting was attended by the home secretary, director general of police, police commissioner and secretaries and other senior officials of the housing and urban development department, water resources department, the Odisha State Pollution Control Board, Swachch Bharat Mission officials and the Khurda district collector.
"A waste management plant is an absolute necessity for a modern and expanding city like Bhubaneswar. We will implement the orders of the high court and the National Green Tribunal. The tribunal has directed the government to provide necessary support for the project," said Padhi after today's meeting.
In its interim order, the high court has asked the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to go ahead with dumping of solid waste at Bhuasuni landfill site.
In another case, the eastern zone bench of NGT in Calcutta on May 15 directed the state housing and urban development department and the police to remove all obstructions in the construction of the waste-to-energy plant.
Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said: "Solid waste management is a statutory requirement for the city. The state government and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Commission have a responsibility to construct the plant according to waste management rules."
On the other hand, villagers said that the state government would not be allowed to go ahead with the project as a case was pending in the high court.
"We will not allow the project to come up. We will fight with our last drop of blood," said Jayant Moharana, a local youth.
The villagers of Daruthenga gram panchayat and the civic administration have been at loggerheads over the past few years over the solid waste management projectat Bhuasuni.
On July 29 last year, Daruthenga had turned into a battlefield with the police and villagers getting involved in a pitched battle leaving around 20 persons injured from both sides. The police had retaliated to the stone throwing by the angry mob and fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets. It had also resorted to lathi charge to disperse the mob.
The residents have been demanding relocation of the Bhuasuni dumping yard and to halt the civic body's decision to set up the waste-to-energy plant there as well.
They alleged that many of them had been suffering from various health issues because of the bad smell emanating from the garbage dumped there.
The villagers also alleged that dumping of garbage had led to water contamination in the area.
Municipal commissioner Kumar, however, said: "The proposed waste-to-energy plant is not a problem but is actually a solution to the woes of the local people as the garbage can be turned into electricity."
