PUNE: Small scale industries (SSIs) from Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) Bhosari area are furious over the dumping of the garbage in an open plot near Sector 10 in MIDC by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) for over a year now.
The SSIs alleged that the garbage dumped here is generated by the residents of Indrayani Nagar and Bhosari area which was making them sick. Interestingly, Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA) had reserved this plot (3,053 acres) for a fire station, but currently, it is vacant.
Meanwhile, the complaints by SSI owners to Solid Waste Management Department of PCMC have fallen on deaf ears. Despite owners’ continuous follow up of the issue with them for past one year, the PCMC has yet not found time to prepare a building plan for the fire station.
Refusing the claim that the garbage is dumped here, Anna Bodade, Public Relations Officer and ‘C’ Ward Officer of PCMC said, “PCNTDA has alloted the plot for a fire station to us, but our plan for the building was not ready. The plot is not used as a dumping ground. The garbage collected in small garbage vans are transferred to big vans and later moved to the Moshi dumping ground.”
MLA Mahesh Landge said, “We had a meeting with PCMC Commissioner Shravan Hardikar on this issue. He has assured that the civic body would look for another place to transfer the solid waste, but till then, the work of transferring the waste would continue here for some time.”
Pramod Rane, the owner of Raga Corporation, said, “The burning of this garbage creates unbearable stink which has badly affected my company’s workers. Few of them are suffering from breathing problems and asthma, but I could not solve their problems. Most of them have stopped coming to work, which has affected the functioning of the company,” he added.
STINK FROM GARBAGE AFFECTING WORKERS
- Sandeep Belsare, President of Small Scale Industries Association, said, “There are more than 1,000 SSIs in MIDC Bhosari. Earlier, there were big dustbins installed in the area to dump the industrial waste, but now there are no dustbins and hence, the industrial waste can be seen scattered on the road defacing the entire area. Besides that, the stink arising from it has affected the workers and many of them are complaining about various health problems.”
- Hardikar said that he was aware of the issue and would take steps soon to resolve the problem. He said, “It came to my notice that many SSI owners and their employees are suffering due to garbage stink. We are in the process of making alternative arrangements for a place to transfer the solid waste and dispose it off. Along with it, I will also make sure that the construction of fire station begins soon,” he said.
