Garbage in Panvel not cleared for 3 days; residents plan protest outside Cidco office

As garbage piles up and the deadlock between PCMC and Cidco continues, locals plan morcha on April 3

Garbage was not cleared in areas under the jurisdiction of Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) for the third consecutive day, on Friday, by the City Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco). Residents have threatened to hold a morcha at the Cidco office on April 3 if the garbage does not get cleared by then.

Garbage has not been cleared in Panvel city and various nodes since March 28. (HT File Photo)

Garbage has not been cleared in Panvel city and various nodes, including Kharghar, Kamothe, New Panvel, Kalamboli and Taloja.

Kantilal Kadi, president of Panvel Sangharsh Samiti, said: “It is really shameful that Cidco has stopped clearing garbage. We are at the receiving end for no fault of ours. There’s garbage strewn across the city since the past two days, which is a health risk. Authorities should fix the problem at the earliest, or they will have to face the consequences.”

“There is a huge pile of garbage in front of our society that has not been collected for the past two days, and it’s stinking. There seems to be no solution to the issue so some members of our society will definitely participate in the morcha,” said Sachin Chavan, 52, a committee member of Tirupati Icon in sector 18, Kamothe.

The Panvel Sangharsh Samiti also plans to spread word about the protest morcha through social media, asking residents to join the march. “We will approach authorities in large numbers and demand immediate action,” Kadi said.

The garbage row between Cidco and PCMC has been going on for a while now. Until PCMC came into being on October 1, 2016, Cidco was the planning authority for nodal areas of Panvel. Since then, Cidco has set several deadlines for PCMC to take over various civic responsibilities, which the civic body has refused, citing financial and manpower constraints. Things have come to a head now, and Cidco stopped collecting garbage on March 28, a day after Cidco vice-chairman and managing director Bhushan Gagrani met UD principal secretary Manisha Mhaiskar.