Rajouri: Rajouri town is facing a difficult situation in terms of proper dumping and disposal of garbage amid unavailability of a proper site, forcing the municipal authorities to dump garbage under the open sky.
Locals from Rajouri said that garbage dumping was a big problem in Rajouri since decades with the concerned authorities having failed to have found any solution of this never-ending problem.
They said that on a daily basis, sweepers of Municipal Council Rajouri collect garbage from the nearby localities but dump it under the open sky in an area near new bus stand of Salanibridge which is the main entrance of Rajouri town from Jammu highway.
“The issue of dumping site as well as garbage recycling site has been the main demand of the people but decades have passed and no government in power has bothered to find a solution of this,” said Vishal Sharma, a Rajouri resident.
“Proper disposal of garbage should be a priority in any town but it never remained so in Rajouri as such a project cannot produce votes for political parties,” he said.
Hailing work done by the Municipal Council Rajouri, people of Rajouri said that sweepers of the council had always worked in the best possible manner to keep the town clean despite having limited resources and honorarium.
Chairman of Municipal Council Rajouri, Muhammad Arif said, “Our staff collects garbage from the town on a daily basis but where will they drop it when there is no specific location. Dumping garbage in an open area is not a good choice but there is no second option.”
He said that the present setup of the municipal council had finally worked out a way out of it and some required garbage disposal units would be soon setup in Rajouri.
“We are working on the modalities of a project to setup the main garbage collection, recycling and disposal plant at Kotedhara village but this is a major project spread over 54 kanal land and will take time,” Arif said. “We have succeeded to get two more mini-garbage recycling and disposal plants with one in Bela area and other one in Salani area.”
He said that in both these plants, bio-degradable waste would be processed for making bio-fertilisers while non-biodegradable ones like polythene and other plastic content would be processed for making valuable content like tiles.
“This practice will for sure help in the scientific disposal of waste,” he said.
Arif said that eight new vehicles for collection of bio-degradable and non-degradable waste were being put to work which would collect garbage from identified places and households.
“We are also providing two kinds of dustbins to 5867 identified houses in Rajouri with one for bio-degradable waste and the other for non-biodegradable waste.”