Under fire for letting garbage swamp the City, the State government on Saturday swung into action to assist the BBMP to find a way out to clear the mess and identified alternate landfill sites at Nelamangala, Chintamani and some abandoned quarries as dump yards.
On a day when the garbage clearing was more visible across the City, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar convened a review meeting at which he directed Palike Commissioner Shankaralinge Gowda to clear the piled-up garbage within 24 hours.
Besides the commissioner, Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy, A Ravindra, former bureaucrat and advisor to chief minister on urban affairs, corporators, City MLAs and BBMP officials were present.
Although trucks were seen transporting garbage from the City, the problem is likely to be sorted out only by Monday.
Many truckloads were diverted to the Mandur landfill, even as the Mavallipura landfill remained closed. On the ban imposed by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) at this landfill, ecology and Environment Minister Sogadu Shivanna said the Board should have looked for alternatives like segregating garbage and utilising garbage for power production, before disallowing dumping of garbage in the designated dump yards.
Shettar later told mediapersons that he had asked the commissioner to initiate all possible measures to bail out the City from the mess. He also instructed the commissioner to initiate action against Ramky Enviro Engineers for violating contractual provisions, that resulted in garbage being strewn all over the City.
The Chief Minister said the government would speed up processing of files pertaining to possible locations for garbage disposal. A special meeting will be convened next week to accelerate the process of denotifying land for solid waste management.