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| SMC risks public health, misinforms Guv over Achan crisis | | | Early Times Report
srinagar, Mar 19: The alleged nexus between the "land mafia" inciting violence at the Achan landfill site and some "tainted" officials within the Srinagar Municipal Corporation is getting clearer as the SMC has misinformed the Raj Bhawan by giving factually incorrect details about the crisis, which has taken City hostage since March 5 as heaps of garbage continue to mount on the streets here.
Early Times learnt from reliable sources that some "tainted officials" within the civic body allegedly hand-in-glove with the "land mafia" gave up scientific disposal of waste at the land fill site since last year only to pave way for the crisis to erupt. And, now in a bid to hide the misgivings, which as per experts can result in outbreak of deadly epidemic, the "tainted" officials presented incorrect picture before Governor NN Vohra.
Given the fact that some 400 metric tons of garbage are every day lifted from Srinagar, a total of around 12,000 metric tons are garbage are dumped at the landfill site on monthly basis. This way, in the past five odd months, over 50,000 metric tons of garbage has been dumped unscientifically at the landfill site.
But the SMC informed the Financial Commissioner Planning and Development Department BB Vyas that only 3000 metric tons of garbage lies unattended, though this much of trash is dumped there within a week.
An official handout from the Information department released on March 17 confirmed this. As per the handout, Vyas said "Commissioner SMC shall be responsible for taking immediate action, as an interim measure, to cover heaps of solid waste, about 3000 MTs approximately, spread over 150 kanals of land, with plastic sheets to address the issue of foul smell."
But experts questioned the wisdom of the SMC officials saying it was virtually impossible for the authorities to tackle such a huge quantum of garbage with polythene sheets adding that chances of outbreak of epidemic actually have risen manifold.
Insiders in the SMC blamed it on the "tainted officials" who have been assigned the sensitive charge of waste management at the landfill site when the National Green Tribunal is regularly monitoring the waste disposal and has made the Chief Secretary BR Sharma accountable over this issue.
Sources alleged the "tainted officials and the land mafia" had preplanned the crisis. "Such officials strategically got the scientific management of waste stopped only to let the crisis fester through open dumping of waste instead of burying it properly in the scientifically developed cell," said a senior official pleading anonymity.
He said last year the then PDP-BJP government assigned the charge of sanitation to some officials who already had a "tainted record" in the field. "In 2013, when the scientific disposal of waste was started, these officials were striped-off the charge of sanitation as they had miserably failed to manage the system and some of them were allegedly hand in glove with the land mafia... But why they were given the charge again and why the crises reemerged needs to be probed by the Raj Bhawan," the SMC officials said.
As of now, given the crisis over "epidemic-prone disposal of waste", garbage collection is a crisis in Srinagar. Official records reveal that tons of garbage lie unattended on the roads since March 5 when SMC truckers ferrying garbage were attacked by the land mafia and the sanitation operations were called off.
But the SMC seems to be lying on this front as well. An official handout reveals that garbage was lying unattended until March 17, whereas in the previous days the SMC issued three handouts claiming that the garbage was lifted. So who is right: the officials working with the Raj Bhawan or the SMC?
"This bundle of lies as being told by the SMC is a clear cut message that some black sheep within the civic body want to keep the government top brass misinformed about the issue so that the crisis festers and land mafia emerges successful in getting the landfill site relocated so that private townships be constructed there," said a senior official in the SMC, pleading anonymity.
But the SMC Commissioner Bashir Ahmed Khan refuted that his staff was linked to land mafia. He however candidly agreed that it was not mere 3,000 metric tons of garbage which lies dumped in open at the landfill site. "It is atleast 31,000 metric tons… I don't know how the figure has been shown incorrect," Khan told Early Times.
He, however, assured that the efforts were on to get rid of the menace and that things would be back to normal in the coming days. |
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