Jamshedpur: MLA of Jamshedpur West Saryu Roy has launched a sharp counterattack on former minister Banna Gupta, accusing him of making misleading and ill-informed statements regarding garbage management in the city. Referring to an old statement of Gupta, Roy remarked that people end up giving wrong advice.
In a statement, Roy said that certain half-baked advice was given to Gupta, who, according to him, is dreaming of becoming the “mayor’s husband.” This advice led Gupta to claim that Roy was responsible for stopping the dumping of garbage from Mango on the plot near Marine Drive on the riverbank in Sonari, resulting in heaps of garbage accumulating in Mango. Roy alleged that through this claim, an attempt was made to shift the blame from cleaning contractors close to Gupta onto him.
Roy further stated that Banna Gupta, who had once tried to join the BJP, made these allegations at a press conference last Tuesday. Clarifying the facts, Roy said that for a long time, garbage from the Mango Municipal Corporation and JNAC was being dumped on vacant land belonging to Tata Steel near Marine Drive. Over time, a massive garbage mound formed there and eventually caught fire, causing severe air pollution across large parts of Sonari. Residents repeatedly approached administrative officials from Jamshedpur to Ranchi, but no action was taken.
He added that the matter reached the National Green Tribunal after senior citizen K.S. Upadhyay filed a case (Number – 5/2023/EZ). The residents were represented by Supreme Court senior advocate Sanjay Upadhyay. During the hearing, government representatives failed to present satisfactory answers, following which the NGT reprimanded them and ordered an immediate halt to garbage dumping at the site, extinguishing of the fire, and removal of the accumulated waste.
Roy said that it was the same Jharkhand government, in which Gupta was a minister, that complied with the NGT’s orders, stopped garbage dumping at the site, put out the fire, and issued a tender worth several crores of rupees for garbage removal.
Questioning the current situation, Roy asked who should be held responsible if garbage is now piling up in the streets, lanes, and neighbourhoods of Mango. He demanded that Banna Gupta either explain who is responsible for the present state of affairs or publicly apologize for his misleading statements and lack of understanding of the issue.
