After mid-day highlighted how uncollected garbage was piling up at Khandawala Compound Road in Vakola, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday finally swung into action, deploying a JCB loader to clean up the spot within a single morning. Faced with a waterlogged kutcha road during the monsoon and mounds of garbage the rest of the year round, residents of four housing societies at Khandawala Compound Road have been fighting an uphill battle with the civic body for the past two years. mid-day had reported about their plight in June.
Between August 18 and 29, residents filed complaints with the BMC, but these had remained unresolved. Between September 16 and 29, the residents of Amity Apartments, one of the four affected buildings, escalated the matter by calling the civic body’s disaster management helpline 1916. Yatin Shah, a representative of the residents of Amity Apartments, one of the four affected buildings, said, “No one was taking our complaints seriously. Even on Sunday, in the middle of the night, we suspect someone from the nearby slum area had dumped even more garbage. When the BMC came to inspect the area following mid-day’s report on Monday morning, the staff found larger amounts of garbage in the dump and needed to clean it mechanically.”
Shah questioned why the routine garbage collection van did not collect trash daily. “A garbage collection van picks up our waste every morning. However, this area was ignored.” Dumped garbage consisted of household solid waste, dry waste, construction debris, and wooden and metallic household items. Residents have demanded disciplinary action against the H East ward’s solid waste management department.
