Thane: A massive volume of garbage was stored in the Daighar waste processing plant. Processing has not continued since two days ago due to non-payments to the contractor. Following this, on Saturday, Thane Municipal officials arrived at the processing plant, allegedly broke the main gate, and entered 35 garbage-loaded vehicles to dump it in, allegations made by a production head, Kailash Dhumal. Meanwhile, a long queue of garbage vehicles queued in and around the limits of Daighar village, after which villagers opposed the contractor for the project.
"Thane Municipal Corporation had given a contract to Thane Clean Environment Private Limited for processing the garbage of the city. The company purchased Germany-based machinery and others equipment for processing the garbage. Around 22 acres of land are reported to be used for processing. In processing, wet waste is segregated from dry waste. A project is underway to generate electricity and CNG through wet and dry waste. Around 85 employees were engaged including garbage vendors in the processing work. However, the payment has not been made for two months" said Production head, Kailash Dhumal from Thane Clean Environment Private Limited.
According to the civic sources, it is alleged that the contractor has parked Pokelin, JCB, and dumper at the main entrance of the project, due to which garbage vehicles could not enter. The contractor has kept the machinery closed for the last two days. As a result, a long line queue of garbage vehicles was parked in and around the limit of the village. Following this, the villagers protested against the project. Seeing the arbitrary attitude of the contractor, Municipal Corporation officials reached the spot and tried to dump the garbage amidst police security.
Speaking with the FPJ, Kailash Dhumal, the production manager, said that officials from TMC have allegedly beaten his few employees, entered 35 garbage vehicles into the plant after breaking the main gate. So far, no complaints have been reported to the police.
Manish Joshi, Deputy Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation or Solid Waste Department denied the assault while speaking with the FPJ. He said that the contractor allegedly forcefully parked the pokelane, dumper, and other vehicles at the main gate of the plant. When we contacted the operators of the pokelane to remove them, he said that the contractor instructed not to do so. Our team collected the garbage from Mumbra Diva Kalwa, but it has not been processed for the last two days. As a result, a long queue of garbage vehicles is causing trouble for the villagers. Garbage management is an essential service, and blocking the entrance gate by parking vehicles is wrong. Due to some reasons payment has not been paid.
The sources said that the contractor couldn't pay salaries to its employees for the last two months despite giving a bill of 66 lakh to TMC. Several reminders of the payment have been sent to TMC, but none of them paid attention. Consequently, they have stopped the ongoing work.
The villagers faced difficulties in breathing easily due to the foul smell emanating from the processing plant. Consequently, diseases can spread in the environment, which can harm their health. Therefore, the villagers opposed the project.
An officials of TMC stated that approximately 1 thousand metric tons of garbage are generated every day across the Thane Municipal Corporation area. Out of this, 515 metric tons are wet waste and 441 metric tons are dry waste.
