Residents of southern Kashmir’s Pulwama are angry at the government’s failure to designate a dumping site for the town’s garbage which lies scattered in heaps along main roads, paddy fields and public spaces.
Residents fear spread of disease as garbage and hazardouswaste lying around the town, mocking at a purported sanitation drive byMunicipal Committee Pulwama (MCP).
Anger among the residents has been mounting against themunicipal authorities for dumping solid and non-biodegradable waste in theopen, risking lives of the people.
They say that Pulwama despite getting district status some25 years ago still does not have a proper garbage dumping site.
Many a time in the recent past, the MCP attempted to dumpthe town’s garbage in other towns including Tral, Pampore and Awantipora butfaced wrath of the locals pushing them back.
Consequently, the MCP has continued to dump garbage from thetown in public places that now stink so much that it makes pedestrian movementdifficult.
“Dogs are always seenin these areas as they keep searching for food in these dumps, posing a threatto locals particularly students,” said Abdul Rashid, a resident of Nehamalocality of Pulwama town.
The garbage littered along the roads makes it difficult foreveryone including school-going children, said Shabeer Ahmed, a resident ofKakapora.
“The problems get compounded with increase in temperaturewhich has mostly affected patients,” Mushtaq Ahmed of Rajpora said.
Residents say they have apprised the authorities severaltimes and requested not to dump solid waste in the open, but authorities haveturned a deaf ear to their repeated pleas.
They demand the stinking town be urgently sanitised toprevent an outbreak of disease.
Officials said that there was no land available wheregarbage from the town could be dumped.
Executive officer of the MCP, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, said aproper site for depositing the town’s garbage has finally been identified.
“After struggling all these years we have found a properdumping site at Waibugh Pulwama. The site, without effecting environment andproving hazardous to people, can bear tons of garbage for years together,”Wani told Greater Kashmir.
The townspeople in the meanwhile are waiting for theresidential areas and roads to be cleared of all accumulated garbage.