Garbage, worries pile up for 3 Kullu district civic bodies

Kullu, August 25

Garbage management is becoming a major issue in three towns in Kullu, with the district administration and civic bodies of Kullu, Bhuntar and Banjar facing a stiff opposition from locals during their visits to earmark sites for waste treatment plants.

The three civic bodies are in a fix after the garbage treatment plant at Rangri, near Manali, stopped accepting waste from these since July 15.

The civic bodies have been trying to identify the sites for the treatment plants since 2017 after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered against dumping the waste at Pirdi yard near Kullu due to its proximity to the Beas river.

Kullu MC officiating Executive Officer Hari Singh Yadav said many places were earmarked for the plant, but the locals were opposing the move.

Recently, a team from the administration and Kullu MC visited Katrain panchayat to review the site for the garbage treatment plant at Jatehad Bihal between Katrain and Patlikul. However, the locals opposed the move, stating that many social activities were carried out in the area.

Katrain panchayat president Geeta Thakur said there was an anganwadi centre and Ambedkar Bhawan in the area and it was not appropriate to build a garbage treatment plant in their panchayat.

The Bhuntar Nagar Panchayat (NP) is also finding it difficult to finalise the site for the treatment plant even as heaps of garbage continue to pile up in various localities. The team of Kullu MC and Bhuntar NP, along with the officials of administration, had visited Jia village to set up the dumping site and treatment plant, but the villagers stated that the area was of religious significance due to the confluence of Parbati and Beas rivers.

A team comprising officials from the Banjar Nagar Panchayat, Forest Department, electricity board officials and tehsildar faced a stiff resistance from the villagers during the inspection of a site for the treatment plant in Chunhta Pul Dandugad in the Manglor panchayat.

The villagers said drinking water sources and schemes of the area and the Tirthan river will become polluted due to dumping of garbage. The life of adjoining six villages will also become miserable, they added.