Officers wake up after plaint to CM Fadnavis

Mumbai: A day after a complaint letter about the absence of a garbage disposal system in Alibaug was written to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) officials, the local gram sevak and district-level officers on Thursday visited Kihim beach to take stock of the situation.

The Navi Mumbai-based MPCB officials, who had been for a site visit with Sumaira Abdulali, the complainant, is set to prepare a report on Friday.  

Garbage has been dumped illegally on the beach and private land where locals keep collected garbage. The site visit began around 1 pm and was completed by 4 pm.

Ms Abdulali said, “There is an urgent need to bring in a proper garbage disposal system in for Alibaug. The authorities need to act quickly so the situation doesn’t worsen.” She added, “The picture, however, will be clear once the report is made. At present, locals either dump the garbage illegally in a mangrove area or burn it.”

The issue escalated on Wednesday when Ms Abdulali wrote to the cm, which came to light when Suraiya Artes, who had been to her ancestral home for vacations, saw the poor condition of the beach and initiated a clean-up drive. Ms Artes, said that she had never seen the beach this dirty. Hence with the help of other keen locals she started cleaning it up.

Residents of Kihim beach and Kamat village voluntarily engaged in the drive and collected about 1,000 bags of garbage in a span of three weeks. It was after this that she realised that there was no place to dump the collected garbage. Due to this, the sacks of garbage are still kept in on private land.