KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Streams have become cesspool. Jhelum is polluted. Polythene has clogged the water ways. Dustbins are overflowing. Hospital surrounding is unhygienic.
The poor management of waste material in Pampore has triggered crisis in the town. With mercury soaring high, the waste material lying open and unattended within and outside the shabby dustbins disturbs everyone.
The families living in the houses around the illegal dumping sites complain that life has become miserable for them due to the stench wafting from the unattended waste.
The locals allege that due the unattended waste material dumped without proper disposal near habitations, gets mixed with the water supply sources which can cause outbreak of diseases. “We remain vulnerable to infection arising from waste material,” a local, Nazir Ahmad told Kashmir Life.
The dustbin outside the main hospital of the town remains surrounded with dogs and roaming cattle. “It is difficult for patients and attendants to visit hospital due to foul smell,” Javed Ahmad, an attendant with the patient said.
The tourist season is on and the heaps of garbage on either side Srinagar-Jammu highway from Awantipora to Pantha Chowk give the setting an ugly sight.
A tourist from New Delhi Rakesh Singh while speaking to Kashmir Life said, “the mountains in the backdrop of the highway were beautiful but the heaps of polythene disturbed me.”
The locals allege that municipality men throw waste material of the town into the river Jhelum. “There is no proper garbage dumping place in Pampore town. The river is polluted,” Arsheed Ahmad, a resident of the town complained.
In the event of environmental and health issues creeping up, the municipality officer of the town, Imtiyaz Ahmad, is worried about his “personal identity”. The officer declined to comment on the issue saying that he doesn’t talk about such issues on personal phone number.
Imtiyaz ignored the fact that for a holder of a high-profile public office there is no separation of public and personal identities.
