Irked over shifting of the secondary dump site behind Vardhman mills, garbage collectors in large numbers protested against the municipal corporation on Thursday and blocked Tajpur Road for around six hours. Even though diversions were created by the traffic police, movement of vehicles was hit on Tajpur Road and surrounding areas.
The garbage collectors opposed the shifting of the dumpsite behind Vardhman mills to a point near Central Jail on Tajpur road and rued that it is difficult for them to pull their cart to that point. They demanded that MC allow them to continue dumping waste at the old site.
Leaders of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also joined the protest and slammed MLA Sanjay Talwar for failing to deal with problems being faced by garbage collectors and residents of the constituency. As per the information, most of the garbage collectors were MC Class-4 employees.
AAP leader Daljit Singh Grewal (Bhola) stated that door-to-door collection of waste has been affected in atleast 15 wards due to the ill-planned decision. They demanded that the MC find a solution for the problem at the earliest.
Police and MC officials tried to pacify the protesters but to no avail. They finally lifted the agitation after getting assurance from MLA Sanjay Talwar in the evening that an alternative site will be finalised for dumping of waste.
{{/usCountry}}Police and MC officials tried to pacify the protesters but to no avail. They finally lifted the agitation after getting assurance from MLA Sanjay Talwar in the evening that an alternative site will be finalised for dumping of waste.
{{/usCountry}}Talwar stated that the site behind Vardhman mills is surrounded by hospital, religious places and residential area. Further, a school and community centre is also being constructed in the area and they have also proposed a Ravidas auditorium at the site where garbage was being dumped earlier. He said the opposition is trying to gain political mileage by misguiding the garbage collectors.
“A meeting has been scheduled with MC officials on Friday and we will finalise an alternative site for dumping of garbage, so that no one faces any problem,” said Talwar.
On September 28, waste collectors had staged a protest in the Dugri area over shifting of secondary dump site.
Waste collected from houses is dumped at the secondary dump sites, from where it is transported to main dump site on Tajpur Road.