While the panchayat claims it is taking all possible steps to collect and process garbage, it has blamed the reckless dumping of garbage by the roadsides. In some cases, objections by residents have stalled its plants for a wet garbage treatment site.
The roads near the sports complex, VPK Bazzar and bypass road have been littered with garbage. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India campaign), some concerned residents undertook a cleanliness drive in the panchayat area.
To their disappointment, the hard work went in vain as a few days later, garbage was discarded by the roadside and Nullahs were filled with plastic bags, bottles, food waste and other waste.
According to locals, most traditional houses in Khandepar have been disposing off garbage in their own premises, but residents living in flats and apartments at Curti have no such access to land to dispose off their garbage.
According to Curti-Khandepar Sarpanch Deepa Naik and Deputy Sarpanch Nagesh Naik, the panchayat has been undertaking a door-to-door dry waste collection drive, as part of efforts to resolve the garbage woes in the panchayat area.
“Several truckloads of garbage are being sent to the government storage points. Till now, the panchayat has sent over 10 trucks of dry waste,” said Deepa Naik.
“We are trying to manage and treat wet garbage, but there is no treatment plant and we are making more efforts in this direction. We had purchased land to dump wet garbage and cover it with mud. However, locals opposed it and we had to make alternate arrangements to dump and cover it with mud at another place,” said the sarpanch added.
Insisting that the panchayat’s dry waste management is slowly but surely taking shape, the sarpanch expressed indignation over dumping garbage by the roadside.
“Though our dry waste management system is in place, people have been throwing garbage on roads and this is a major nuisance to the panchayat. Many of these offenders are from other panchayats. Because of these reckless activities, we are struggling to solve the garbage menace. We are also working to set up a garbage treatment plant in future,” added the sarpanch.
