Moshi garbage depot expansion opposed, residents give PCMC 15 days before agitation

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) wants to expand the Moshi garbage depot, and the proposal has drawn strong opposition in the newly included villages. Local residents and corporators have taken to the streets. People of Moshi, Chikhli and Charholi have given the administration 15 days. They say that if no firm decision is taken in that time, an indefinite mass agitation will follow.

An emergency meeting of residents was recently held at a village temple, where the proposed expansion was strongly opposed. After the meeting, a memorandum was submitted to the municipal commissioner. It says that if the administration does not take a firm decision within 15 days, thousands of citizens will join an intensified agitation.

Residents are angry over the serious problems caused by the Moshi depot. Ward No. 3 covers Charholi, Moshi, Indrayani Nagar, Chikhli, Bhosari and the Spine Road area. The area has developed rapidly in the past few years and its population has grown considerably. But the stench from the depot has spread across the area, putting people's health at risk. Locals say air pollution and contamination of groundwater are causing respiratory illnesses, skin diseases and other serious ailments.

Local corporators and villagers demand that the expansion of the Moshi depot be stopped and that waste management facilities be set up at eight to 10 different places in the city. They say Pimpri-Chinchwad should not dump all its garbage in one place. The corporation, they say, should set up and run waste management projects in different parts of the city so that the entire burden does not fall on people of one area.

Present at the meeting were a former mayor, sitting corporators Nitin Kalje, Rahul Jadhav, Sachinbhau Tapkir, Nikhil Borhade, Archana Saste, Dr Suhas Kamble, Sagar Gawli, Sarika Borade, Sujata Borate and Namrata Yogesh Londhe. Former corporators, office-bearers of various organisations, environmental activists and a large number of local residents also attended.

The memorandum, signed by corporators and citizens, urges the administration to take up the matter immediately and seriously. According to the memorandum, if a firm decision to stop the proposed expansion and to distribute waste management across different locations is not taken within 15 days, thousands of people from surrounding areas will hold an indefinite and intensified mass agitation at the garbage depot. The memorandum also warns that PCMC administration will be wholly responsible if the agitation leads to any law-and-order situation.

Nikhil Borhade, the local corporator for Moshi, said: "The people of Moshi, Chikhli, Charholi and Bhosari have been bearing the stench and pollution of the depot for many years. Lakhs of people have now settled in these areas, which are among the fastest-growing parts of Pimpri-Chinchwad. Even so, the administration is thinking of expanding the same depot again and is playing with people's health. We have asked the administration many times to reconsider its decision."

Borhade further said: "Why should our area bear the burden of the whole city's garbage? The corporation should divide waste management and take it to eight to 10 different places. We have given the administration 15 days. If the decision on expansion is not withdrawn in the meantime, we will take to the streets with the people and stop the corporation's garbage trucks. This agitation will not stop."