Residents of Mumbra, Diva protest week-long lack of waste disposal

On Monday, a group of residents from Mumbra and Kalwa and leaders from the NCP (SP) staged a protest by dumping garbage outside the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) headquarters, to highlight the civic body’s failure to manage waste in their localities

THANE: With garbage collection halted for the past week in Kalwa, Mumbra and Diva, local residents are struggling to live amid the unbearable stench. As waste piles up across housing societies, residents are afraid the unsanitary conditions may lead to an outbreak of diseases.

Thane, India - November -17, 2025: garbage at Mumbra .For the past seven to eight days, garbage has not been collected by the Thane Municipal Corporation from the Diva, Mumbra, and Kalwa areas, resulting in garbage piles being seen everywhere. ,in Thane ,in Mumbai, India, on, Monday, November -17, 2025. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo ) (Praful Gangurde)

On Monday, a group of residents from Mumbra and Kalwa and leaders from the NCP (SP) staged a protest by dumping garbage outside the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) headquarters, to highlight the civic body’s failure to manage waste in their localities.

The sudden halt in garbage collection stems from a land dispute. The TMC-operated waste management dumping ground at Daighar is located on land owned by the local community. After the community opposed the garbage dumping on their land, the TMC could not identify any immediate alternative site to dispose of garbage and stopped collecting garbage across Kalwa, Mumbra, and Diva.

The sudden lack of waste collection has irked the residents of Thane, a city that generates approximately 1,100 metric tonnes of waste daily. Earlier, the TMC relied on dumping grounds at Atkoli, Bhiwandi and at Diva, but both sites are now being converted into green zones through bamboo plantations. The civic body stopped using the sites for waste disposal nearly five years ago when they were filled to their capacity. The TMC then began using other dumping sites, including the one at Daighar where local residents have protested the dumping.

Highlighting the issue, Abhijit Pawar, district president of the NCP-SP, along with former corporators from Kalwa and Mumbra, led a group of protestors to the TMC office. The protesters brought garbage in a dumper, dumped it outside the TMC headquarters, and demonstrated outside the TMC commissioner Saurabh Rao’s cabin.

Pawar warned that if the issue was not resolved immediately, the protesters will dump garbage outside the commissioner’s bungalow too. “TMC collects taxes from residents, but when it comes to providing services, they fail to offer even basic civic facilities,” he said.

Later, Rao met the protesting delegation and informed them that operational issues at the dumping ground had caused the disruption. During the meeting, an NCP (SP) leader from Mumbra, Sanu Pathan, offered his land in Mumbra to be used as a temporary dumping ground for waste, a proposal that Rao accepted.

Rao said, “We will now use the land provided by Pathan as a transfer point. From there, garbage compactors will transport the collected waste to other processing sites. I have instructed the solid waste management department to deploy vehicles and machinery immediately to clear the accumulated garbage,”

Meanwhile, a Shiv Sena leader from Diva, Rohidas Munde, criticized the TMC’s reliance on private land for waste disposal. “Despite being a major municipal corporation, TMC should not depend on other people’s land for dumping waste. Why must garbage always be dumped in Diva and Mumbra? Are the lives of residents here any less valuable?” he asked. Munde further demanded the creation of a new dumping ground near Ghodbunder road and warned that residents may stop paying taxes if the situation does not improve.