Karnataka govt proposes to acquire 1000 acres of land to dump waste

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has proposed to acquire huge tract of land exclusively for dumping and processing city's garbage. Replying to the debate on the issue in the assembly on Monday, Bengaluru Development minister K J George agreed to a suggestion from speaker Kagodu Thimmappa who directed the minister to identify at least 1000 acres of land for dumping and processing IT city's waste and also to break the politicians- officials- garbage contractors' nexus. On a suggestion from Thimmappa, George also agreed to convene a meeting of Bengaluru city MLAs, MPs and BBMP officials to take their feedback and find out a long lasting solution to the on-going garbage crisis in the city. `` I will hold the meeting soon after the assembly session,'' he added The minister attributed the prevailing garbage proble for three reasons: protests by villagers in the vicinity of the dump yards, string of festivals and the unprecedented rains. ``'Due to the protests by villagers, we could not lift the garbage which resulted in piling up of the garbage in many parts of the city. It was followed by a series of festivals during which the garbage piles up and the the untimely rains only added to the problems,'' he added George said the government has proposed to set up seven solid waste processing units of which five units are functional and two are in the commissioning stage. Though the total processing capacity of these units is 2,300 mt per day, at present hardly 1000 mt of garbage is being processed for want of segregation of wet and dry waste, he added. This apart, the government has approved setting up of three processing units with the combined capacity of 2200 mt per day with private participation. These units would take two years to function. A 600 mt capacity 'waste to energy' unit is also in the pipeline in association with the Dutch firm Waste to Value'. A 120 mt capacity processing unit is also being set up at Kannahalli which will be completed in two months to treat the waste being produced by the hotels, George added. ``'If all these units become functional, there will be no garbage problem at all in the city, as the combined capacity of all these units will be 50 percent more than the garbage produced in the city everyday,'' George said.