Residents raise a stink over garbage issue
Sudhanshu Athalye
Irked by the apathy of municipal authorities towards the garbage across Mira-Bhayandar, residents of Nayanagar allegedly barged into ward officer Ganesh Patil's office on Tuesday morning and scattered garbage in his cabin. Unable to trace Patil, the angry locals also allegedly tried to blacken the faces of two of his subordinates, thus creating a ruckus.
Bowing down to protests by residents of Dongri and Uttan to the dumping ground in the vicinity, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) had stopped lifting the garbage from the city. With no place to dump the waste, the civic authorities allowed heaps of garbage to be formed in the twin cities.
Last week, Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik had issued an ultimatum of seven days to the MBMC to solve the issue. But instead of making some arrangements, the MBMC officials tried to burn the garbage in the city.
Enraged by the callous attitude of the civic body, the residents allegedly attacked Patil's office. They also reportedly urged to people to refrain from paying the taxes. After the mob dispersed, Ganesh Patil and the Mira Road police surveyed the amount of damage caused.
Ganesh Patil said, "Garbage in the city is a serious issue and we will try to resolve it at the earliest. We are helpless at this moment and so the residents should not take law in their hands. We will lodge a police complaint in this regard."
Shivmurthy Naik, commissioner, MBMC, said, "We have stopped using Uttan's dumping ground since September 13. Since then we have been dumping the garbage at a private land. But we have not been able to do so for the last four days. We have already approached the chief minister's office to get the issue solved and will be meeting him soon."
Meanwhile, the Mira Road police lodged a complaint against 15 unknown persons for creating obstacle in government functioning and rioting. No arrests were made till late evening.
s_sudhanshu@dnaindia.net