MYSURU: Karnataka State Pollution Control Board officials in Mysuru recently wrote letters to the deputy commissioner and authorities of civic body appealing to them not to allow burning ofgarbage in Mysuru.
They said this will add to air pollution because medicine strips, plastics, sanitary napkins, diapers, hair, kitchen waste and dried leaves are thrown into it. It produces toxic gases that are very harmful to health and atmosphere. Despite the warning, one finds garbage heaps in parts of Mysuru set on fire. This could be because the civic agencies haven't bothered to remove them.
Pollution board officials claim presence of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air has gone up this year compared to the previous year. They attribute this to the frequent burning of garbage. This leads to ash and other suspended matter accumulating in the air.
Mysuru City Corporation health officer H Ramachandra blames the public for throwing garbage into the fire. He claims the corporation has penalized contractors for setting fire to garbage heaps and now the civic workers have stopped the practice.
There is no exact recording of pollution in the absence of air quality monitoring devices in places where door to door garbage collection is poor especially in north east of Mysuru. Even inthe city centre dried leaves are burnt forcing residents to inhale toxic gases. Civic officials and elected representatives claim that despite their directions that garbage not be burnt, some civic workers ignore and set them on fire to make their job easier.
Claims M Lingaraju, resident of Gayathripuram II stage, "After MCC stopped keeping garbage containers civic workers have begun to burn garbage thrown near vacant sites opposite our dwelling place. They stop it when residents raise their voices but later resume the practice saying contractors have directed them. It is happening because garbage management in the locality is poor and trash is not cleared regularly."
KSPCB environment officer P Niranjan says, "As per our data, the presence of sulphur dioxide in the air in 2014-15 has been high in the last five months and even nitrogen oxide level has gone up. Following reports we had written to deputy commissioner and civic agency to take steps to control pollution. We will send them another reminder with the latest findings. The monitoring device covers a radius of one kilometre."
Sometime back Mysore Grahakara Parishat members too had raised similar concern.
University of Mysuru chemistry professor K M Lokanatha Rai said burning garbage is unsafe because acidic properties are released into the air.
