Mluru Dasara Aftermath! DC Directs Organizers/MCC to take Precautions about Garbage
Mangaluru: The piles of garbage after the Mangaluru Dasara procession that was scattered all along the procession route has put a shame on the City, since the images of the trash was clicked by the citizens of Mangaluru and outsiders , which went viral. Even though Team Mangalorean was the FIRST to highlight the pathetic and shameful images of the trash on Mangalorean.com, then followed close on its heels other print and electronic media highlighting the same issue, which sparked off a serious debate among netizens, and even Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil has directed the organizers and Mangaluru City Corporation to take necessary precautions, so that the ugly scenes of garbage lining the streets of Mangaluru would not happen.
It is learnt that nearly 8000 kg of garbage was collected between the night-day of the Mangaluru Dasara event, adding to that nearly 325 tonnes of garbage that is collected daily by the Waste handling company workers. Even though a bunch of workers of Antony Waste Management co tried their best to clean the waste after the Dasara procession, but piles of garbage was still seen around the next day. But the question many citizens with ‘common sense’ ask is that why were people so ignorant in littering such a large amount of waste, when it could have been disposed off in a proper way? Why can’t MCC make the street vendors to clean up after the mess they left behind?
But after the images of the garbage littered on the streets were published by Mangalorean.com First, then by other media, and also after pictures of the litter went viral- finally the district administration woke up to take action. DC Sasikanth Senthil directed the officials of MCC to put in place a concrete policy that will put onus on the organizers to clear the trash generated from such events. He also advised them to install temporary garbage bins when such huge event take place, and also that the make-shift stalls get permission from MCC to set up their stalls.
In the meantime MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer had said that the civic body had come up with a proposal that the DC mooted, but could not get it approved by the standing committee in time for the dasara. “We recognize the issues that any event of this magnitude generates” commissioner said, adding the onus to clear the garbage invariably falls on MCC. “Henceforth, MCC will fix a nominal fee for such stalls, and also levy solid waste management cess on them”, he added. And since the organizers don’t have the wherewithal to clear the garbage, the Commissioner said that the policy mooted will ensure that solid waste management cess collected for a specific event is used to pay Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt Ltd, the garbage hauling contractor for MCC to take care of the City’s garbage.
Commissioner Nazeer further said that at present MCC collects all the waste generated from such events at no cost to the organizers, but henceforth a new policy will change this, where will impose a fee of the organizers for garbage collection. In the meantime, Prakash Kurup-senior Manager ( Finance) with Antony Waste Co said, “We collect an average 324 tonnes of waste each day. The relative spike that one saw following the Mangaluru Dasra ( 333 tonnes) was due to the fact that our laborers could not reach out to all spots from where they collect the waste on a daily basis, due to traffic restrictions enforced during the dasara event. This festivity had added a little extra waste that we otherwise collect on a daily basis. But only if people had used their civic sense, there wouldn’t have been so much garbage on the streets”.
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