Sagar
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, July 19: Following a special report on the struggle of Daruthenga residents against Bhuasuni dumping yard which appeared in these columns July 18, housing and urban development (H&UD) minister Pushpendra Singh Deo Tuesday announced that the dumping yard will be shifted to Tulsadeipur within a month.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held at the Secretariat here Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Bhubaneswar-Central and North MLAs, Jatni MLA, Home Secretary, DGP, police commissioner, DCP and other officials.
Daruthenga sarpanch Prashant Routray thanked Orissa POST for raising the issue but called it a half-won battle.
“We were not part of the meeting. The government has also neither intimated us so far about the decision. Whatever I know is through media. We are not happy as they are not shifting the garbage treatment plant. The decision will have little impact as the trucks will continue to make trips from new site to the treatment plant proposed near the village,” Routray said.
The villagers were part of the high-level discussion held earlier at Circuit House in February, April and then in June.
Earlier, the minister had said the treatment plant would not be relocated as demanded by the villagers. It would rather be set up as per the court’s order, he had maintained. Routray had said there was no order from the High Court on the treatment plant. “The court in 2008 had ruled that the dumping yard at Sainik School should be relocated as soon as possible. Subsequently, the government proposed Daruthenga as the new dumping site without taking the villagers’ consent,” Routray added.
“We have already appealed against the order of Daruthenga being made as a dumping yard and the case is sub-judice. But, there is no order on the treatment plant,” the sarpanch said.
He also said that the treatment plant would pollute the air and groundwater in the village.
The gram sabha has decided to meet Wednesday and pass a resolution against the government’s decision of keeping the treatment plant at Bhuasuni. “We will continue to stop tippers from entering our village,” Routray opined.
The villagers said the government has once again cheated them by arriving at a conclusion without their inclusion in the decision making process.
