Friday, 08 April 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The locals of Sheeshambada have warned that they will stage a massive protest if the authorities concerned fail to take action against the alleged improper operation of the solid waste management and recycling plant in the area within two weeks. The locals said that they have been warning the authorities concerned about the heaps of garbage that have been accumulating there for years and was rising every day till it caught fire on Monday. According to a local resident and member of Pachwadoon Sanyukt Samiti, Chaitanya Anil Gaur, no one at the city level or district level cared to check whether proper procedure is being followed in the Sheeshambada plant to dispose the garbage despite their frequent appeals in the past three years. He said, “The officials remained apathetic towards the issue for years and ultimately we are the ones who have to pay the price for their apathetic attitude. For the past four days, we and our young children have been forced to live and breathe in the smoke of garbage. God knows what kind of poisonous gases we have been inhaling for four days. The smoke was certainly less on Thursday than the previous three days but it is still going to affect our health.” He said that the fire and the smouldering garbage have also affected the environment but the authorities have only been giving them false assurance like the past several years. He said, “The mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ visited the plant on Thursday and assured us that he will talk about shifting the plant to the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. The district officials also visited and talked about taking action on the matter. Though we hardly doubt anything positive will come out of these assurances considering our past experiences, we have decided to stage a massive protest if no action is taken on the matter within two weeks. We also did not let the garbage vehicles enter the plant on Wednesday to demonstrate our protest but we will intensify it if the authorities fail us this time too.”
