Located between the Governor’s Guest House and Ashtalakshmi temple, the narrow road to Odaima Nagar, Besant Nagar, can easily be missed.
Inhabited by nearly 2,000 people, the hamlet is located on the Elliot’s Beach shore, and is a picture of civic negligence.
With mounds of garbage waiting to be cleared, residents are getting increasingly vexed with the Corporation for ignoring the same, despite multiple appeals. News Today makes a visit.
“At the entrance of the Nagar, the huge pile of waste which can be seen, is dumped by outsiders. The trash is brought here in a tri-cycle and disposed on the sands,” said Mani Maran, a longtime resident.
As you walk further down, you realise that people here do not have sewer line connections and manage with septic tanks, even as a stench fills the air.
So what about the Corporation bins? “Two years ago, these were there. But since the waste was not collected regularly, residents could not put up with the stench. As for the bins that were kept in front of houses, the people themselves removed it,” he added.
A few weeks ago, a private hospital organised a beach clean-up in the locality. Around 150 volunteers and locals gathered and cleared garbage into over 50 big bags. But for 12 days, no one from the civic body came for collection.
“We had to appeal many times and eventually, the local MLA intervened and had conservancy workers come and do the clearing,” said Rajashekar, another resident.
According to him, people now are more aware of effective disposal. “We ask them to dump at a particular place and not scatter these all across the beach. We just want the Corporation to clear it once. We will take it from there and maintain the surroundings. We also want an effective system to ensure waste is collected regularly, instead of piling up,” he added.
Rajashekar also played voice recordings of phone conversations with officials who promised action, but none took place. “We have had bitter experiences with them. Over the phone, they would claim that the work will be done soon, but no one ever turns up. We are also planning to protest,” he said.