PDOs told to ensure ORR remains garbage-free

Exasperated by the relentless dumping of garbage along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) despite efforts to spruce it up, the authorities on Tuesday fixed the onus on the Panchayat Development Officers (PDO) to ensure that the road remains clean.

At a stakeholders meeting, Mysuru MP Pratap Simha said that the ORR alignment abuts a few village panchayat limits and the garbage from these places are dumped along the roads at night. Hence the PDOs of the respective villages will be held responsible and penalised for any garbage dumping that takes place along the ORR stretch coming within their jurisdiction.

Though the entire 43-km stretch of the ORR was recently cleaned and spruced up by various departments, the practice of using the ORR has a dump site has persisted and is a cause for concern, said Mr. Simha.

Bulk of the dumping takes place at night and despite efforts by the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) to impose fine, the practice has persisted. Mr. Simha said the PDOs will be expected to carry out periodic inspection of the stretch within their jurisdiction and ensure that the ORR remains garbage-free.

The villages of Hinkal, Koorgali, Bogadi, Srirampura, Hosahundi, Hanchya, Alanahalli, Siddalingapura – all of which display semi-urban characteristics and are part of the city suburbs – abut the ORR alignment. In the absence of space for disposing the garbage, the villagers dump it along the road.

Mr. Simha said he will strive to identify suitable land for waste disposal and appealed to the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) to allow the garbage generated in the villages along the ORR to be transported to the sewage farm in Mysuru till the completion of the Swachh Survekshan 2021 survey. The ORR will be asphalted again at a cost of ₹161 crore released by the Centre and the NH wing of the PWD will take up the task and the cleaning drive comes ahead of the asphalting, said Mr. Simha

The waste treatment plant at the sewage farm handles city wastes and has been a cause of rift between the residents and the local authorities. The former want the waste treatment relocated as it is source of foul odour and there have been a slew of protests seeking its relocation. Also, against its capacity to handle around 250 tonnes of garbage daily, the facility receives nearly 400 tonnes and there is spillover.

Gurudutt Hegde, outgoing MCC Commissioner, agreed to the suggestion to transport the garbage from these villages provided there was waste segregation at source. He suggested a plant visit of the stakeholders as well. The arrangement to allow the villages abutting the ORR to shift the garbage to a city facility till an alternative arrangement is made, is expected to mitigate garbage menace along the ORR considerably.