Residents living near Sainik School in Bhubaneswar have demanded that waste trucks be stopped from entering the Gadakana dumping yard during Durga Puja, warning that they will begin a hunger strike and protest outside the Odisha State Pollution Control Board if the demand is not accepted.
The residents submitted a memorandum to the member secretary of the state pollution control board, seeking a halt to waste dumping at the Gadakana facility until the garbage mound near Sainik School is removed. They also demanded that waste vehicles be prevented from entering the site during the festival period.
The campaign, identified in the report as Sainik School Banchao and Aliajada Hatao Abhiyan, said it would organise demonstrations near the dumping yard and sit on hunger strike in front of the pollution control board if waste vehicles continue to enter the area during Durga Puja. The memorandum was submitted by campaign representatives including Basudev Bhatt, Ashok Paikaray, Prasanna Bisoyi, Dilip Dash Sharma, Sandipta Das, Sankarshan Barik, Sanjay Mallik and Lalat Jena.
The dispute places the immediate festival demand within a longer-running conflict over the Gadakana temporary transit station, or TTS, and the accumulation of waste near a densely inhabited part of the city. The residents’ campaign said it had previously held several sit-ins, protests and hunger strikes seeking the removal of the waste mound.
The campaign representatives also claimed that the Union defence minister had written to the Odisha chief minister regarding the removal of what they described as an illegal and toxic waste mound. The report does not provide the date or contents of that letter, and the claim could not be independently assessed from the material available.
According to the residents’ representatives, toxic gases and pollution from the dumping site have affected people living in the surrounding area. They alleged that several residents had died and that others were suffering from serious diseases because of the waste mound. These health claims are allegations made by the campaign and are not supported in the supplied report by medical records, an official health assessment or an independent study.
The campaign further said that the pollution control board had eventually issued a strongly worded letter to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, giving it time to remove the waste mound. The report does not specify the deadline given to the civic body, the volume of waste at the site, or the alternative location planned for handling the city’s waste during the festival.
The immediate question is whether the authorities will stop waste vehicles from entering the Gadakana yard during Durga Puja and how the city will manage waste collection if the entry restriction is implemented. The next stated steps by the residents are a hunger strike before the pollution control board and a protest near the dumping yard if their demand remains unmet.
