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| PDA, MC Pahalgam fail Garbage Treatment Plant; Dump solid waste on river bank | | | Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
Anantnag, June 19: The Pahalgam Development Authority and Municipal Committee Pahalgam have allegedly joined hands to fail much hyped Garbage Treatment Plant (GTP) project by dumping the solid waste along the river bank in Sarbal area of Pahalgam instead of treating it timely.
According to local residents, Municipal Committee Pahalgam has again started dumping solid waste on the banks of Tulyan rivulet in Sarbal area of Pahalgam. They alleged that Pahalgam Development Authority isn't operating the Garbage Treatment Plant on daily routine.
"Crores of rupees were spent on Garbage Treatment Plant (GTP) but sadly it isn't working as per the set norms. We visited the Garbage Treatment Plant and found that huge quantity of solid waste has been dumped near the GTP by the municipal authorities," Noted environmental activist Mushtaq Pahalgami told ET.
He alleged that the officers at Pahalgam development Authority and Municipal Committee Pahalgam were adopting lackadaisical approach and were 'murdering' the basic purpose of establishing Garbage Treatment Plant.
"PDA and Municipal Committee have huge assets and they earn in crores annually because of Pahalgam but shockingly we are being told that PDA doesn't have enough funds for operating the treatment plant," he added.
Ibrahim Raina, a resident of Pahalgam told Early Times that Garbage Treatment Plant (GTP) and Sewage Treatment Plant setup by the PDA haven't served any purpose yet.
"We continuously approach PDA authorities and request them to connect our hotels and residential houses of village Lari Pahalgam with the STP but our requests aren't being heard," he said.
Raina said that sewage coming out from residential houses and hotels directly flows into river lidder while as garbage dumped on Tulyan rivulet is only exposing the tall claims of authorities with regard to environmental conservation.
Sources revealed to Early Times that authorties haven't deputed a well qualified team for handling the project while as bioremediation of waste from time to time isn't being done.
A spot visit by this report found huge quantity of solid waste dumped on the river bank at Sarbal Pahalgam near the treatment plant. A local firm, who has been hired for operating the treatment plant and disposing off the solid waste, blamed municipal committee employees for the mess.
"They (Municipal Committee employees) dump this waste here as they don't segregate the waste at sources that they were asked to do. Disposing off the solid waste without segregation isn't impossible and segregating the waste is job of municipal committee," they said.
Executive Officer Mc Pahalgam, Shabir Ahmad admitted that they aren't segregating the solid waste at source. "Solid waste that comes from hotels is being dumped at garbage treatment plant in segregated form while as around 40% is picked up at source without segregating it," he said, adding Pahalgam procudes 7MT of garbage per day while the capacity of treatment plant is just 5MT.
He said that Garbage Treatment plant doesn't have a generator because of which it runs only on electricity and in absence of electricity it remains off.
No PDA officer was available for a comment. |
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