Waste disposal: Now, Fatahpur residents up in arms

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 2 

The Municipal Corporation has started dumping garbage on its 15-acre dumpyard at Fatahpur near Chabal Road. The decision has drawn the ire of the area residents. As most of the residents are into the dairy business, they argued that the dumping of garbage might lead to infection among their livestock. 

The MC staff had dumped garbage at the site yesterday after a month-long stalemate over the issue. Though hundreds of residents protested the move, the police dampened their protest. Heera Lal, president of a body of the Fatahpur dairy complex, said the site was demarcated for raising a dairy farm and it was wrong to dump garbage in the area. 

“We have around 20,000 cattle here and milk is supplied to the whole of the city. Who would be responsible if our livestock contract some disease or infection? We have requested the MC to stop dumping garbage here. It seems that the MC wants to make the area another Bhagtanwala,” he said.  

 According to Dr Charanjit Singh, Health Officer, who has been entrusted with the task of supervising the dumping of garbage, around 200 trolleys were unloaded at the site today. 

 “As a preventive measure, we had asked for the police assistance. The protest by the residents could not be justified as they live far away from the site. Moreover, it is an alternative arrangement after garbage could not be dumped at Bhagtanwala,” he said

Around 600 metric tonnes of waste is generated in the city daily, which was being dumped at the Bhagtanwala dumpyard but after the protest by the residents of the locality, the MC was compelled to stop dumping garbage there.

Thereafter, a plan was prepared to identify constituency-wise dumping sites, but this arrangement too did not last longer. As the waste could nor be lifted from the city, heaps of garbage were left unattended on  roadsides and in streets. 

Surinder Tona, general secretary of the MC Workerss Union, said all Class IV employees supported the MC’s decision to dump garbage at Fatahpur. “We support Municipal Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal’s decision to dump garbage at Fatahpur. We also appeal to the residents to cooperative as the moot point is to keep the city neat and clean so that visitors could get a good impression of the city,” he said.