Civic chief wants separate cell for managing waste

The issue of solid waste management has been bothering the civic body with no landfill site available for dumping the waste. Villagers of Urali Devachi had blocked the trucks carrying garbage from entering their village — which used to be PMC’s dumping ground.

After the district collector intervened,the villagers reached an agreement with the PMC to ensure that there won’t be any dumping of unsegregated garbage from December 15. Since,efforts have been on to find a new landfill site.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) too came down heavily on the civic body for continuing dumping at Uruli Devachi. The civic body has also taken various waste treatment project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

It has installed biogas plant in various parts of the city to treat the waste generated in the same ward and made it compulsory for all housing societies to segregate the waste generated before discarding them.

The ward medical officers who are,at present,handling the waste disposal in their respective wards have conveyed their reluctance to carry out the job as it was an additional burden on the already existing work of providing civic health facilities to citizens.