‘Children will die’: Assam CM defends dumping of Guwahati waste in Chandrapur
- Aug 14, 2021,
- Updated Aug 14, 2021, 8:31 PM IST
GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today defending the dumping of waste in Chandrapur said that children in Guwahati will start falling sick within a week if the wastes are not disposed of. Guwahati city produces around 550 tonnes of garbage per day.
We have to establish a dumping ground somewhere. If we do not pick up litter, Guwahati will be finished by diseases. Biswa Sarma said that the government is dumping waste in Chandrapur as there is "no other option.”
“At the same time, we are trying to find an alternate dumping ground. But if we do not find an alternative and Chandrapur locals do not allow us either, Guwahati will report instances of Japanese Encephalitis, malaria, diarrhea and children will begin dying within 7 days.”
Asked about the problem faced by the locals of Chandrapur, Biswa Sarma fired back: “Who will you support? If there is a conflict between Guwahati and Chandrapur -- who will you support? If we do not dispose of wastes - if children die, will the people of Chandrapur be happy?”
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Biswa Sarma assured the people of Chandrapur that efforts are underway to find an alternate dumping location.
Residents of the area, on the outskirts of the city, have been staging protests since June 26 against shifting the dumping site to Chandrapur from West Boragaon.
Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner Biswajit Pegu has said that they are looking for locations at several places in the city for a dumping site. They had to shift the dumping site from West Boragaon, adjacent to Deepor Beel (a freshwater lake), in the south-west of Guwahati following a National Green Tribunal order to do so. Locations at Basistha, Narengi, Tamulgaon, Boragaon, Sonapur, and a few other places are reportedly being checked.
Garbage is being dumped at the 40-acre area of the Thermal Power Complex since June 28. This triggered a massive protest against the administration’s decision to shift the dumping ground to Chandrapur.
Following the intervention of the Pollution Control Board, Assam (PCBA), however, the dumping of garbage at the site has been “temporarily” stopped since August 5.