Former Minister and MLA S.A. Ramdas has locked horns with Mysuru MP Pratap Simha over waste treatment in the city.

Treatment of 450 tonnes of waste generated in Mysuru every day had been posing a major challenge for the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) as the Waste Treatment Plant at Vidyaranyapuram has a capacity to process only 200 tonnes per day, which is less than half of the daily waste generated in the city.

The mountains of untreated legacy waste accumulating at the plant had sparked widespread resentment among the residents of J.P. Nagar, Vidyaranyapuram and Vishweshwaranagar, who had complained not only of foul smell, but also threat to their health and well-being.

In December last year, a meeting of people’s representatives from the city including MLAs and MPs, besides officials of the district administration convened by the then Minister in charge of the district V. Somanna resolved to take up a proposal for biomining the waste and decided to send a team to Nagpur, where a private company, Zigma Global Environ Solutions, was implementing a project.

Incidentally, Mr. Ramdas, who represents Krishnaraja Assembly constituency in whose limits the Waste Treatment Plant is situated, was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting. However, a team of officials and people’s representatives comprising Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar and the then Mayor, Pushpalatha Jagannath, went to Nagpur and submitted a favourable report after which the government decided to go ahead with the project.

But, Mr. Ramdas’ first public display of opposition to the project came during last week’s meeting in Mysuru in the presence of Minister for Urban Development Byrathi Basavaraj and Minister in charge of Mysuru district S.T. Somashekar, sparking a verbal exchange with Mr. Pratap Simha, who was also present at the meeting.

Mr. Ramdas said he was opposed to the government going ahead with the project without eliciting the opinion of the public.

But, Mr. Simha followed it up with a press statement claiming that the project had already been approved by MLAs from Mysuru G.T. Deve Gowda and L. Nagendra, besides local corporators, who were present at the meeting. He said Mr. Ramdas had failed to turn up for the meeting convened by Mr. Somanna despite the latter informing him about the meeting.

Now, the project had secured clearances from the Departments of Urban Development and Finance and has reached the stage of inviting tender, he said.

However, Mr. Ramdas in a video statement released in response to Mr. Simha’s press statement, said he had no objection to the project and the company identified to implement the project as long as the Waste Treatment Plant is shifted away from the present location in Vidyaranyapuram.

While clarifying that the meeting of local MLAs and corporators had been held even though he had informed Mr. Somanna that he would be away in Bengaluru attending a pre-scheduled meeting of a Legislative Sub-Committee, Mr. Ramdas said the MCC has already identified a plot of 110 acres of land in Rayanakere on the outskirts of the cty.

Recalling the series of protests he had held to oppose the plant at Vidyaranyapuram during 1996 when Mr. Siddaramaiah was the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Ramdas said he had even moved the courts in the regard. The then government had filed an affidavit in the court that the project to treat 200 tonnes was only for 10 years after which it will be relocated.

Mr. Ramdas said he was opposed to implementing the revised project, which will start with biomining the legacy waste before taking up treatment of daily waste, at the same location. The residents of the localities in the vicinity of the plant in Vidyaranyapuram are strongly opposed to it and hence the project should be moved to Rayanakere, which has already been identified by the civic authorities as an alternate site for waste treatment, he added.