Friday, 24 MAY 2024 | PNS | UTTARKASHI
Residents are irked at garbage piling up in Tiloth ward in Bhatwari despite the Uttarkashi civic body having handed Rs 73 lakh to a private company for disposing of the accumulated garbage. Social worker A Puri alleged that though the company had promised to dispose of the garbage in 60 days, nine months have passed with the garbage heaps lying in the open.
Notably, when the garbage problem in the town had become acute last year, the district administration had given strict instructions to the municipality to initiate prompt measures. Steps were taken too, but the situation has remained largely unchanged.
Angry locals allege that the collusion of the municipality and the private players is preventing the garbage piles from being cleared. “Those running the company entrusted with the garbage disposing task are working in cahoots with a section of the municipality staffers and this is emboldening them to land the people in environmental hazards with the garbage piles mounting up. With the rainy season not far, this may become an ideal breeding ground for grim diseases,” said a local, requesting anonymity.
It is pertinent to mention here that a contract was signed by the municipality and the private company to the effect of the latter collecting about 6,000 metric tonnes of garbage from Tambakhani and completing the garbage cleaning work in ward number three Tiloth. The people were told that the garbage in its entirety would be removed within two months, but over nine months have elapsed since the contract was signed and the garbage heaps still are rising.
The worried people further say that the garbage mounds are dry and if they catch fire accidentally or through mischief, it may become something akin to wildfires which affected forests in Kumaon and Garhwal regions of the State.
