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Garbage from eateries on FC road raises a stink
PUNE: Fergusson college road has become an eyesore yet again
PUNE: Fergusson college road has become an eyesore yet again. The reason is that despite getting a new footpath, it has been encroached upon not just by hawkers and street vendors but also eateries and their garbage, the latter having become a point of discussion on social media.
Fergusson college road is a magnet for youngsters to hang out and enjoy shopping and eating out. That the number of roadside eateries has increased over time indicates that they are doing brisk business but what is annoying is the garbage piling up on the newly-built footpath which has become a blot on the landscape.
“It has been a persistent problem with shops and vendors that despite dustbins, many people are throwing the waste on the ground. At Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti (DGPS), we used to have regular drives with the Ghole road ward office, but this was more than five years ago and it made a huge difference then. All shops were told to keep dustbins. At that time, the ward office even undertook night sweeping to keep the road clean but the staff refused because there were inebriated people on the road and they were worried about their safety. Now however, it has become a menace with unruly behaviour by both patrons and street shops who disregard the garbage they produce,” said Sumita Kale, a member of DGPS. As people are getting away with littering, Kale took to social media to highlight the problem. There is so much apathy that despite the presence of clearly marked Adar Poonawalla clean city initiative bins, one can see people dumping garbage on the road.
Many residents are of the view that those caught littering should be severely penalised. Amit Paranjape said, “The least these restaurants/hawkers need to do is to clean up the area (post-midnight) by employing private cleaning agencies if required. Else the PMC should be charging them severe fines.”
Another resident added, “Why should PMC sweepers be burdened with the mess that they are not responsible for? Why should they clean the garbage thrown irresponsibly by people eating out and misusing the road?”
Prashant Konde went on to say that it is the responsibility of the eateries to take care of the mess and that PMC staff should ensure proper care is taken by eateries or fine them heavily.
Senior health inspector, Ghole road, Sunil Kamble, said, “We have initiated drives and even given them training on how to dispose garbage that is thrown near their stalls. We have given them garbage bags to be collected and then handed over to the PMC ghanta gadi but it all seems to have fallen on deaf ears. We have also taken action against these hawkers but it does not seem to help.”
Meanwhile, older restaurants like Kirti juice centre even go out of the way to warn these hawkers against littering and some have even given them large garbage bags to pick up the litter thrown by their customers.
