BENGALURU: Solid waste management in Bengaluru is facing a crisis due to an unexpected development. The fear over an impending crackdown on illegal Bangaladeshi settlers has resulted in an undisclosed number of migrant ragpickers fleeing the city and this has affected functioning of dry waste collection centres (DWCCs) in several residential localities.

On Thursday, TOI found a shantytown with about 50 makeshift houses near Bannerghatta Road-Nice Road Junction that now resembles a

. A policeman prevented TOI journalists from taking photographs.

Locals from the neighbourhood said the

housed illegal Bangladeshi migrants as well as people from West Bengal. They admitted that migrants vacated their houses last week following a visit by police personnel. While migrant men worked as ragpickers at DWCCs, the women were domestic helps in nearby apartments.

"These migrants spoke in what appeared to be Hindi but it sounded different. We couldn't understand anything," a local provision store owner said, adding: "Last week, a few police officials came and started inspecting the place. The next day morning, there was nobody around."

Their fleeing has affected the functioning of several nearby DWCCs. TOI went to a couple of them in southeastBengaluru and found 23 people at one place and 25 in another. The manager of one DWCC said all his personnel were from Delhi. He, however, later said they were from Assam.

The manager of the other DWCC told TOI her employees speak Hindi. "They come in the morning and leave by evening. They rarely go out or meet anybody during work hours," she added.

Senior BBMP officials said private NGOs employed ragpickers without ascertaining their identities. "Nobody else is ready to do this work and whoever comes forward is grabbed," said an official.

Their identity cards show they are from Assam and West Bengal, making it difficult to dismiss them as foreigners, he added.

Mahadevpura DWCC officials confirmed there is a sudden dip in the number of people turning up for work at their centre. "We are aware of the tense situation and we cannot say anything now," said Nalini Shekar, founder, Hasiru Dhala, an NGO involved in dry waste management in the city.

"The ID cards of people working at DWCCs show they are from Assam and West Bengal. If police find out more about them, we'll support them," said D Randeep, BBMP special commissioner, solid waste management.