Won't tolerate threats of PIL by garbage mafia, says Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar
His statement comes in the wake of a stay granted by the high court on the rollout of new garbage tenders — a move the govt had initiated to overhaul Bengaluru's solid waste management system.
Reacting to the stay order, Shivakumar accused contractors of resorting to intimidation tactics, including the misuse of PIL petitions, and warned that the govt wouldn't yield under pressure.
Speaking on the sidelines of a walkathon organised by the department of environment and ecology and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), Shivakumar said: "Regardless of the work the govt takes up, some groups are constantly resorting to intimidation tactics by filing PIL or obtaining stay orders from courts just to threaten the govt.
We won't tolerate this, and such tactics won't work."
Questioning the motives of the contractors who challenged the new tenders, Shivakumar asked if the govt wasn't supposed to clean Bengaluru. When asked specifically about the court's interim order, he responded: "I'll look into it."
Describing the network of existing garbage contractors in Bengaluru as a "mafia", he said: "Previously, there were 89 tenders. All those who bagged these tenders have formed a group.
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This is nothing but a mafia. They think they can mislead us. But we'll expose them and apprise the court about their actions. We'll mercilessly remove those trying to obstruct us and provide opportunities to new players to develop Bengaluru," he said.
This isn't the first time Shivakumar has levelled allegations against garbage contractors. During the budget session of the state legislature in March, he had alleged that a cartel of contractors had formed with the objective of undermining the govt's efforts.
He had also expressed disappointment that certain legislators were supporting these groups, suggesting a pattern of collusion and blackmail.
The govt's push for fresh tenders is part of a larger effort to streamline and modernise waste management, which has long struggled with inefficient garbage collection and disposal systems. However, the process has faced repeated legal and logistical hurdles, many of which the govt now attributes to entrenched interests.
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