PANJIM: Congress leader Diya Shetkar has alleged mushrooming of illegal scrap yards across Shiroda and warned of protest if the authorities fail to clamp down on the illegality.
“Congress workers in Shiroda will soon hold a large-scale protest and initiate criminal action against all illegal scrap yards in the panchayat areas of Shiroda, Bethoda and Panchwadi. The residents have filed several complaints, but the panchayats do not seem to be taking any action. To add to their woes, the scrap yard operators resort to burning of non-biodegradable plastic and other waste in the open, which further adds to the air pollution. Parts of Shiroda have become highly polluted,” she said.
She further said that the scrap yards segregate garbage from recyclable scrap, process scrap materials and resort to dangerous and illegal practices to extract metal or precious metals and handle toxic chemicals. Some of these scrap yards have come up in agricultural areas and are polluting the environment, surroundings, and the toxic chemicals used to extract metals could even pollute the ground water, Shetkar claimed.
