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Your Space:PMC should spread awareness about garbage burning among residents, sanitary staff
As the temperature in the city drops, garbage burning is causing a haze of smoke and smog. Readers suggest steps to curb the menace
Health risks
Garbage burning is punishable as a criminal offence under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, which authorises the state governments to ban the burning of any material causing air pollution. The irresponsible and unscientific method of garbage disposal can be quite hazardous. Gases and particles emitted from the burning of waste can substantially affect human health and also affect climate change. It hampers the future of our children and some of these pollutants have been linked to decreased lung functioning, neurological disorders, cancer, and heart attacks. Strict action is needed to remove the smog from Pune’s skyline.
Rutuja Gaikwad
Civic body not doing enough
Incidents of indiscriminate and unmindful burning of garbage, mainly plastic bags in Pune have caused concern among the city residents. Numerous cases of burning garbage have gone up in recent weeks and it has s become a common sight to see garbage accumulated on roads being burnt in the mornings in Wagholi and other outskirts. What is causing concern among the residents is the burning of plastic bottles, carry bags and other hazardous waste mixed with other garbage. In most cases, the conservancy workers set fire to the garbage to clean up the garbage mounds on street corners. PMC is not doing enough and to solve the issue.
Rizwan Khan
Create awareness
The local ward office must take strict action against those found burning garbage in the area. Usually, it is seen that even after repeated complaints from residents, sanitary workers and health department staffers don’t collect the garbage on time and it gets accumulated causing health hazards. Also, there is a need to give instructions to the sanitary staff not to burn the garbage they collect as it causes air pollution. Persons burning garbage are to be fined and reprimanded even if they are traders while at the same time the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) must take steps to spread awareness among residents.
Akash Shinde
Complaints go unheard
There is a rampant burning of garbage which has severely impacted the quality of air in the city. The complaints related to garbage burning must be taken up with the PMC as well as with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. Despite repeated complaints by the residents, the PMC has failed to stop the practice. PMC workers appointed for sweeping and collecting waste, including garden waste, are often seen setting fire to heaps of garbage. The open burning of waste by the PMC workers violates its own duty of preventing the deterioration of ambient air quality in the city.
Manju Patil
