Filth overflows at Pune railway station,locals say waste not cleared in 3 months

The contract to clean the station is given to Impressions Services Private Limited (ISPL).

“We have the contract to clean the station,which we do. We have five supervisors,one site in-charge and over a hundred workers. We dump the garbage in three shifts. But cleaning the dump is not our work. That the PMC has to do. Everyday,we ask the railway officials to get it cleared. But unfortunately,it has not been done,” said Ashok Kamble,Training Manager,ISPL.

“I have been working here for the past three months. I have never seen this dump being cleaned. The garbage keeps piling up and since a lot of it is wet garbage,it settles down,” said a sanitary worker,who did not wish to be named.

“With the monsoons in,it has now become impossible to walk along this way. The entire area stinks. Those working the night shifts,often throw the garbage callously,scattering them all over the place,making it even more difficult to go by this way,if need be,” he added.

Almost five days ago,the contract to segregate the wet and dry waste in the dump was given to Anand Choudhary. “There are around six workers who segregate the garbage there. But the condition of the bin is horrible. The PMC vehicle comes everyday and just cleans up the garbage bin that has been kept by PMC itself near the dumping site,” said Anand Choudhary.

“The very construction of the dump is wrong. It is a one-whole-tank-like structure with no cement partition in the middle. So when we segregate the garbage,we have to sit inside the dump. Since the waste has been here for long,there are a lot of big insects and worms. We do not have protective gloves or anything to protect us from being bitten by them or even from shards of broken glass. It is very hard to see in the mess. But,if we don’t keep up,our daily wage will be affected. If PMC cleans the dump regularly,it would have been easier for us,” said one of the contract workers.

Admitting that garbage dump at the railway station has become a problem,Pune station manager Sunil Kamthan,however,maintained: “The allegation that it has not been cleared for the past three months is not true. We get more than 112 bags of garbage everyday,which is a truckload. The PMC vehicle that cleans the garbage dumps isn’t big enough to carry all the waste that comes out of the station. Last week,we hired a private vehicle and cleared the entire dump. We have been asking PMC officials to send more trucks. We even met the mayor a couple of times,requesting her to ask the PMC to send the garbage carrier vehicle at least three to four times a day,but that has not been done.”