Excelsior Correspondent
-Excelsior/Amin War
Gulmarg, Feb 17: Random disposal of solid waste in open in Gulmarg has turned it into a huge garbage dump, threatening its ecology and causing inconvenience to the tourists.
The open dumping of huge piles of garbage in the open has put a huge question mark over the Government mechanism and functioning of Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA) for their failure to put in place basic sanitation facilities.
The smell emanating from the garbage heaps has engulfed the only viable road, thus forcing visitors to close window panes of their vehicles while leading towards Gulmarg.
Tractor trolleys filled with garbage emptied in forests slopes attract troop of monkeys, which make movement of visitors unsafe in the area.
An employee of GDA told Excelsior that the sanitation of Gulmarg was outsourced in 2011, but the “poor” monitoring of the authorities concerned the project was never successful.
“The job to install the mechanical incinerators was assigned to the Mechanical Engineering Department (MED) some three years back, but the project was not started due to reasons known to them,” he claimed.
Chief Executive Officer, Gulmarg Development Authority, Tariq Ganai admitted that the garbage is being dumped in open on ‘outer circular road’.
Ganai said the measures are underway for scientific garbage disposal. “We have taken a decision to use mechanical incinerators to dump garbage and for that work will start in summer,” he said.
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