Pune: The inaction and apathy of the civic administration have forced the residents of Blue Ridge Township in Hinjewadi to take up garbage cleaning from the banks of a nullah that joins Mula River in their backyard. After the residents complained to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), the Zilla Parishad and PMRDA multiple times and received no concrete response, they have decided to conduct a major cleanup drive on March 14 and 15. They will also pay for earth movers and other necessary equipment from their own pockets. The problem, residents said, is that the township receives potable water from the Mula River. If sewage and/or garbage is dumped into such nullahs that feed the river, it will be contaminated and pose health risks to the citizens. Akash Bokade (63), a retired civil engineer and resident of the society, said garbage containers from nearby societies are dumping trash every third night. “We even caught one tanker, but it got away. The situation has deteriorated. With summers approaching, the matters would become worse. We have decided to clean up the nullah and its banks. We would check if someone would be taking away the plastic waste. For other waste, we have been looking at options. One was to dispose it off along with the waste generated by the society,” said Bokade.Anirudha Karandikar (55), an IT professional and a society resident, said they have conducted meetings with officials from the Hinjewadi Gram Panchayat, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and PMRDA. “All the authorities were passing the buck. Every time we met them, they issue a letter to the other authority, but on the ground, the situation remained the same. Earlier it was just construction debris, but now with garbage being dumped, the place has started to stink. Hence we have booked an earth mover and were hoping that the authorities would wake up after seeing citizens doing their job for them,” said Karandikar.The sarpanch of the Hinjewadi Gram Panchayat, however, claimed to have visited the site twice.Ganesh Jambhulkar, sarpanch of Hinjewadi, said the garbage was dumped on a private land parcel and he has visited the area twice and called up the owner of the land. “It has been true that there was a nullah that fed the river. But when we asked the owner of the land to clean up, he said he had no idea who was dumping the garbage. The construction debris was so huge in volume that if we started today, it would take almost 6 months to clean it up. We have already sent notices to builders not to dump waste there. We then sent notices to MPCB and PMRDA. The management of the area was under PMRDA. It must take action. MPCB also should take action against the polluters,” said Jambhulkar.
