Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Solve this problem relating to debris dumping once and for all' that was published in Newsband

Solve this problem relating to debris dumping once and for all

By Dinesh Kamath

BELAPUR: Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) is being criticized for the big way in which the debris are being dumped in Navi Mumbai. It is high time that NMMC authorities came up with some policy that will control the dumping of debris in the city.

The civic budget along this direction might succeed in tackling the debris menace to a certain extent. There is an urgent need of an integrated debris management programme.

There are certain regions in the city where pile of garbage lies for a long period before it is removed. The senior officers of NMMC say that they do issue the order for these garbage to be removed but their junior staff do not always obey their orders. This leads to residents getting annoyed and sending letters of complaints to NMMC. The case of juniors not obeying the seniors is an internal problem of NMMC and hence should be tackled somehow internally. This matter should be reported to the municipal commissioner who has all the powers of setting things right as far as internal functioning of NMMC is concerned.

The ward officers are paid a big amount every month for civic works. Then what is their problem? Why do they avoid or delay the removing of garbage accumulated? Do they realize the inconvenience this causes to the residents around?

There were some ward officers who are reluctant to do debris cleaning work because according to them they are not given the necessary funds. Now this is a serious matter. Another thing is that there are no plots in the city where the debris produced out of civic works can be dumped. The debris are bound to get added when new structures are undertaken for constructing purpose or when old structures are redeveloped. But where is the place to dump these debris?

The Municipal commissioner should call the meeting of all the top officials of NMMC and with their help should tackle this debris related problem once and for all. It would be worthwhile if all these important officials called for the meeting updated the civic chief properly on the present condition of the city so that he can arrive at an appropriate solution which will give relief to the residents of the city.

It would also be wise on the part of Municipal Commissioner if he had a meeting with all the corporators who keep raising the issue relating to debris during the standing committee or general body meetings. These corporators might be in a position to help Municipal Commissioner arrive at a proper solution to this problem which had been nagging both NMMC and city residents for a long time. 

It is also come to light that some NMMC officials and also corporators have been receiving threat from debris mafia. Such persons who are threatened should be given proper police protection and also an in-depth enquiry should be done into this matter.

If this debris related problem is allowed to be stretched for too long then it might assume such a gigantic form that getting a solution to the problem will become extremely difficult.