Unavailability of dumping site disrupts waste collection in Kakapora: Residents

Pulwama, June 23: Unavailability of a dumping site in Kakapora town of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district has allegedly disrupted collection of solid waste.
Residents from Kakapora told Rising Kashmir that the local traders union had taken an initiative of collecting solid waste.
They added that a vehicle was hired by them for collecting garbage from different areas of the town.
Shabir Ahmad, a member of Traders Union Kakapora, said that for door to door lifting of garbage a monthly charge of rupees one hundred was collected from each household and the solid waste was disposed-off with the assistance of district administration at Pulwama or Padgampora.
He said that this initiative ran smoothly for some time after which it was taken over by local Panchayat representatives and eventually it stopped for reasons best known to them.
He said that due to disruption in the service they face inconvenience in managing the solid waste.
Arshid Ahmad, President Traders Union Kakapora, said that the service has been discontinued for around the past 20 days.
“ The garbage was shifted to Pulwama but they disallowed us from dumping it there,” he said, adding that the waste collection was disrupted for non-availability of a dumping site in Kakapora.
“ We were asked to locate a place in our town to dispose of the waste,” he said.
Ghulam Hassan, Sarpanch Kakapora, said that the service has been disrupted in certain wards of the Kakapora and in the rest portion it is operational. He added that land for the dumping site has been identified by concerned revenue officials.
“The issue will get redressed soon,” he said.
He said that the disruption occurred due to resistance from other places where we used to dump the garbage.
“They didn’t allow us to dump the garbage there,” he said.
Block Development Officer(BDO) Kakapora, Farooq Ahmad , said that they collect solid waste from main town Kakapora and dispose it off at a dumping site in Pulwama.
“ We dispose off the garbage generated in main town Kakapora by one way or the other,” he said, adding that a cleanliness drive was carried out in Kakapora town a day ago.
He said that the issue of dumping sites will get redressed soon.
He said that for management of plastic waste a site has been identified in Kakapora.
“The Waste will be segregated in a segregation shed and then crushed by machines,” he said, adding that they are in the process of floating tenders for the segregation shed.
He said that they need some time to complete the whole process.