Sachin Tendulkar bats for Deonar dumping ground residents, writes to Mumbai civic chief

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to find long-term solutions to the problems, related to health and lack of basic amenities, faced by slum-dwellers residing near the waste dumping ground in Deonar, which saw frequent fires recently.

In a letter to Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, the Rajya Sabha MP urged him to find long-term solutions to the problems related to health and lack of basic amenities being faced by slum-dwellers residing near the ground.

Sachin Tendulkar. File Pic

It's time civic officials evolved a mechanism to better the standard of people living near the dumping site, the Bharat Ratna awardee said in the letter dispatched yesterday.

According to a senior civic official, the 42-year-old Mumbaikar visited three colonies located near the ground and decided to bring the plight of the people living there to the civic chief's notice.

"These residents have limited access to basic amenities such as pure drinking water, sanitation, drainage, health, schooling and banking facilities," he said, quoting from the missive.

A major fire at the dumping ground in the last week of January had led the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to shutdown 74 schools run by it for two-days as smoke from the site caused breathing trouble to the residents.

Parts of Mumbai were engulfed in a thick blanket of smog due to the fire. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered a probe into the fire and smog by a panel headed by a senior IPS officer.

In subsequent weeks, several small fires were reported from the garbage disposal site.