Police escort to ensure garbage delivery at Pune’s Uruli Devachi depot

Residents of the area stage protest citing lack of proper means of disposal at the site.

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will use a police escort to ensure garbage collected in the city makes its way to the Uruli Devachi garbage depot.

Garbage on footpath near DES's New English School, Narayan peth, on Wednesday. (MILIND SAURKAR/HT)

Residents of the Uruli Devachi area are not allowing the civic body to bring in garbage to the depot, protesting, among other things, the lack of a proper means of disposal at the site.

At Ramtekdi, a 200 metric tonne garbage processing plant is lying idle due to technical issues.

As a result, garbage is not being lifted from several areas in the city and has been collecting for weeks now.

Mayor Murlidhar Mohol held an all-party closed-door meeting on Wednesday evening, after which, one of the attendees at the meeting, requesting anonymity, said that the administration promised to sort out the garbage issue in a day’s time and if needed, take police bandobast to transport the garbage to Uruli Devachi.

Republican Party leader Siddharth Dhende who was present at the meeting, said, “Additional municipal commissioner Shantanu Goyal promised that the administration is discussing the matter with the police. If needed, with police protection, garbage would be sent to the garbage depot.”

Municipal commissioner VIkram Kumar said, “The administration started a dialogue with residents of Uruli Devachi and we hope the issue gets sorted out soon. PMC will lift all the garbage from the city very soon.”