The people in Suisambal village in Udhampur are at loggerheads with the authorities over the dumping of garbage in the area.
Locals have staged massive protest demonstrations seeking the removal of the dry garbage treatment plant from the area.
While the authorities had set up the treatment plant to dispose of dry garbage scientifically so that it should not be hazardous for the atmosphere, locals said that the rules were not being followed.
A former legislator from Udhampur, Balwant Singh Mankotia said that life in the village had been adversely affected due to the dumping of carcasses of dead animals, and dry and wet garbage in the village for the past two and half years.
Mankotia said that the people were not ready to accept the claims of the authorities and wanted the plant to be shifted to a non-residential area.
“The authorities had decided to expand the plant but the villagers from the adjoining Panchayat areas are also opposing the move. They are together protesting against the move,” he said.
Mankotia said that 50 to 60 families were shifted from landslide-hit Saddal village to Suisambal village in the temporary sheds of the Department of Disaster Management.
However, he said that their lives had become miserable due to the dumping of the garbage.
“You can see heaps of garbage scattered in the area and there is no waste management plan to dispose of garbage properly. As a result, people are protesting against it,” Mankotia said.
“The garbage generated from Udhampur is 10 times more than the capacity of the plant,” locals said.