Aurangabad: locals oppose garbage dumping, 8 cops injured during protest

Eight police personnels were injured in stone-pelting as locals opposed dumping of garbage at Padegaon-Mitmita village on the outskirts of Aurangabad in central Maharashtra on Wednesday. The incident was mentioned by a local MLA in the state Assembly, alleging that police lathi-charged the people. The mob set on fire two garbage trucks of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) apart from damaging two police vehicles, police said. To disperse the protesters, police used teargas, Aurangabad police commissioner Yashaswi Yadav told PTI this evening.

However, he denied the reports that police lathi-charged the crowd. Hundreds of villagers from Padegaon-Mitmita village gathered to protest when municipal trucks arrived to offload garbage this morning. An angry mob set one of the trucks on fire, following which police and fire brigade rushed to the spot. Protesters then started pelting stones, in which two police inspectors and six constables suffered minor injuries, a police official said, adding that police lobbed teargas shells to disperse the crowd.

According to commissioner Yadav, after the mob was brought under control, garbage was offloaded at the site. While the owner of the site had given permission to the AMC to use it as a dumping ground, other villagers were opposed to it, the police commissioner said. The municipal corporation had to look for an alternative dumping site when villagers of Naregaon, where the garbage from the city was being dumped for the last three decades, said they would no longer allow it and launched an agitation. The AMC selected a site at Padegaon-Mitmita, but on March 1, an angry mob set a garbage truck on fire when it arrived at the new dumping site.

The issue was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly by AIMIM legislator from Aurangabad Imtiaz Jaleel, who alleged that police used lathi-charge and also fired in air to disperse the mob during the protest at Mitmita village today. Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil said the government had taken notice of the incident, and "appropriate steps" would be taken. Jaleel said that the government should understand people's anger over the issue of garbage disposal, and police shouldn't handle the situation high-handedly.

Yesterday, replying to a question about garbage piling up in Aurangabad, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said in the Assembly that a solution would be found soon. Scientific segregation and disposal of garbage was needed, he said, adding that funds would be provided to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation for tackling the issue.

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