Pune: Several city areas, including Pashan, Hadapsar, Mundhwa, Wakad and others, continue to grapple with chronic garbage dumping and open burning despite the availability of daily waste collection services offered by SWaCH and PMC. According to many residents of these localities, some people are avoiding the Rs100 monthly fee for doorstep waste collection and instead dumping waste on roadsides. This includes members of housing societies, slum dwellers, hawkers, small shopowners, and more. The result is year-round piles of rotting waste causing foul odour and air pollution. Pashan resident Pushkar Kulkarni, who has been tracking the issue for years, said, “Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) would rather clear the heaps that end up at chronic spots but won’t ensure that people are segregating and handing over their waste properly. People just don’t want to pay for waste collection.” He pointed out that PMC officials rarely take action against households or commercial units that don’t hand over waste. “It’s a simple exercise. Just check how many people pay and hand over waste daily. You’ll immediately know who the culprits are,” Kulkarni said. In his experience, the issue is not limited to Pashan. “The situation is visible in Baner, Balewadi and Pashan, especially around slum pockets. But it is taking place across Pune,” he said. City-based NGO Parisar, which studied solid waste management issues in multiple wards a year ago, said enforcement and grievance redressal remain the weakest links. “We had done a mapping intervention in Pashan last year, wherein we tried to map garbage dumping and burning spots around Pashan Road, as well mark pockets where garbage is not bein collected,” said Shweta Vernekar, senior programme associate at Parisar. “At the city level, we surveyed to 25–30 people in every ward and found widespread dumping and burning, especially during winter. The pattern is the same across the city. Besides Pashan, even in Aundh-Baner, Vimannagar and Bibvewadi, burning and dumping cases rise in winter. It’s the same story every year,” she said. Little has changed, according to Vernekar. “In the last two years, the response system to complaints has not improved. The absence of penalties encourages people to continue dumping. However much the PMC cleans up, people know there will be no deterrent. So, the behaviour doesn’t change,” she added. Wagholi resident Mitesh Kumar also said the issue persists on major approach roads and smaller bylanes of their area. “In several pockets near Kesnand Road and along the old toll junction, people dump garbage early in the morning before the PMC collection vehicles arrive,” he said, adding, “Many of these are regular families, officegoers and clerical staff, who leave for work around 7-8am. Since PMC trucks come after 9am, they just carry the waste and dump it on the roadside.” One of the most common dumping points is near the traffic junction close to the old toll area. “You’ll often see two-wheelers slowing down and people tossing garbage bags or pouches as they pass,” Kumar said. He added that commercial waste is also being dumped in open areas by market vendors or small businesses passing through the panchayat zones. Dumping occurs near some isolated stretches in Wagholi and other semi-developed areas, too. “Small piles appear overnight. Many domestic workers and residents from small apartment buildings throw their garbage in the evening on their way out because they miss the morning collection. Some residents’ groups tried to mediate between SWaCH and smaller buildings so that waste could be collected regularly. But people are unwilling to pay even a small fee,” said Kumar. A senior PMC official from the solid waste management department said, “Whenever we find open dumping, we impose fines. However, we agree that this issue is more common in the outskirts, where people often dump garbage in open areas at night. We are planning to increase vigilance and public awareness drives. The main challenge is that some residents are still unwilling to pay the monthly user charges to SWaCH workers. We are also conducting awareness campaigns among hawkers, vegetable vendors and slum dwellers to discourage open dumping.”
