Goons in Bengaluru dump trash in activist's yard

BENGALURU: Indiranagar resident Sneha Nandihal, who has been campaigning for segregation of garbage at source, paid the price for her activism on Friday . Pourakarmikas dumped mixed waste in her yard to show their anger over her protests against mixing garbage.Nandihal, a member of I Change Indiranagar, a citizen action group, has been fighting to streamline garbage collection in her Hoysala Nagar ward. About 20 men, allegedly backed by the pourakarmikas' union, arrived at her house on Friday morning and dumped waste in the compound. In a Facebook post, along with photos and a video showing pourakar mikas throwing garbage in her premises, Nandihal explained how she got a “gift“ on her birthday .She wrote: “BBMP sweepers collect mixed waste from commercial establishments, and combine it with segre gated waste from residences.This cannot be recycled...Every time I attempted to streamline the system, the corporator and garbage mafia ensured that BBMP did not support us. Why? Because the more he collects, he gets paid more... Three loads of garbage was dumped with smoke rising up to our terrace... BBMP officials are on vacation and will attend to it on Thursday and police were watching garbage being dumped up to my doorstep. Is this Goonda raj?“ The CCTV footage uploaded by Nandihal shows g arba g e being flung by miscreants all around the compound.Anand Kumar S, corporator of Hoysala Nagar ward, said he had heard that Nandihal was abusing the pourakarmikas and they had retaliated. “One pourakarmika has accused Nandihal of slapping her. I think it was the decision of the pourakarmikas' union to do it, and I am not part to it. All that she claims about the garbage disposal system is not true,“ he said.Venkataramana N, director of Association of Pourakar mikaras, said no one should abuse sanitation workers. “Pourakarmikas had complained to the local corporator and BBMP officials against the person called Sneha but it went in vain. So we decided to retaliate. Later, S Raghu, legislator of CV Raman Nagar, intervened and said we shouldn't have retaliated. He assured us that pourakarmikas would be protected. So we withdrew our protest and the garbage was removed,“ he said.Nandihal denied allegations she abused pourakarmikas and said it was part of a smear campaign by the garbage mafia.BBMP mayor G Padmavathy said whatever had happened was wrong. “At the same time, I have heard that the person named Sneha used abusive language while speaking to pourakarmikas.They should be given respect for their work. The way they have reacted is wrong and I will initiate action against the pourakar mikas and contractors responsible,“ she said.(With inputs from Malavika Nair)CITIZENSPEAKArunkumar Iyer: “PM talks about Swachh Bharat. Here when someone wants to adopt that approach to keep the surroundings clean, they are punished.“Ramachandran Keerthiyil: “Obviously these goons have the support of a local politician... shameful... but at the end of it the rowdies involved in all this will simply get away.“Debaleena Ghosh: “In any other country, they along with the corporator would have been jailed and legal action initiated...“