The Pauri District Magistrate Chandresh Kumar stressed that the Municipal Council is responsible for the disposal of garbage in the municipal area. If any complaints are made to him regarding garbage disposal in an area close to residential sites, the administration will restrain the municipality from dumping garbage at such sites.
The municipality can arrange for garbage disposal at Mandakhal and Bakrora, said the DM in a meeting held at the Collectorate to discuss the garbage disposal issue.
Municipal council chairman Yashpal Benam said that if no place is found for dumping the garbage, he will get it done in his native village Siroli.In the meeting chaired by the DM and attended by representatives of various organisations, citizens and municipal board members, Benam’s supporters tried to create nuisance but were brought under control following the intervention of such representatives.
Former Pauri municipal council chairman Jaspal Singh Negi raised the question as to why Benam in his first tenure as chairman had stopped the dumping of garbage near the old post mortem house without searching for a proper trenching ground. Negi also said that a person was ready to provide land including establishing of treatment plant at his own expense but the municipal council had turned down the proposal.
Former president of the District Bar Association Vinodanand Barthwal suggested that municipal council chairman should learn from garbage disposal facilities by local bodies in Nainital, Chandigarh, Banglore and Mumbai.
Secretary of the Sangharsh Samiti of nine villages, Sumant Negi asked Benam why he was charging ‘identity fee’ of Rs 200 per head from migrant Bihar labourers and why the municipal council chairman had not followed on his promise to ensure proper garbagedisposal.
Social worker Bhagwan Verma, business association president Virendra Rawat, Nagrik Manch chief Jagdish Bisht and others said that the local body should fulfill its responsibility of facilitating garbage disposal and sanitation in Pauri.