Being taxed for a non-existent facility, residents of coastal villages in and around Uttan are up in arms against the imposition of the solid waste management user charges by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).
Compelled to face the unbearable stench emanating from the waste processing plant in their region for the past more than a decade, the solid waste management user charges has saddled the villagers with an additional financial burden while being forced to bear the brunt of health hazards without any facility or solution to a freedom from the menace.
The MBMC has commissioned a Rs 491 crore project which is scoped to provide underground sewerage facilities in a radius of 24 sq. km area involving a network of 107 km’s of sewer lines and 10 pumping stations supported by an equal number of treatment plants.
The rural and coastal parts including Rai, Murdha, Morva, Pali, Dongri, Tarodi, Pali, Chowk and Uttan villages that are excluded from the system, were also dragged into the ambit of the sewage facility tax. “While being taxed for the non-existent facility, villagers are forced to cough-up around Rs.1, 000 to get suction tankers from the MBMC to pump out the sewage water from the underground tanks. This is nothing but injustice to us. If the levy is not rolled back, we will be forced to launch an agitation against the MBMC in true-Shiv Sena style,” warned Sena leader-Bernard D’mello.
Last year, the MBMC had assured to send a proposal to the government, seeking relaxation from the levy, until the contentious issue surrounding the garbage process plant is resolved.
However, the proposal continues to gather dust in the MBMC. Notably tonnes of unprocessed waste has accumulated at the uphill of the dumping yard, which according to locals was the reason for the unbearable stench and making an adverse impact on the environment due to its faulty geographical location.
