GARBAGE DUMPING IS NOT A GOOD IDEA

This sort of sharing is NOT healthy for a marriage relationship. When a spouse feels compelled to reveal all, although it may seem honest and open on the surface, in reality it may not be.

We encourage that anyone who has a deep, dark, hidden secret from many years ago think twice before sharing it with their spouse. Seek counseling, individual therapy, or visit a pastor or priest first. Otherwise, you could be transferring a burden from one set of shoulders to another. It can become a no-win situation for the wronged spouse.

Joseph Champlin wrote in Alone No Longer,

"If the wronged spouse becomes angry and unforgiving, the guilty partner then can feel the deed was justified from the beginning; if the offended partner, on the other hand, is very accepting and understanding, the culpable spouse may believe it was not such a bad action after all."

This is a difficult concept for many couples, especially on Marriage Encounter, Engaged Encounter and Retrouvaille weekends. These weekends encourage confidence and openness, but they also stress that (Champlin quote again..)" this is not garbage dumping, nor the revelation of some action or event (that would be confession), but the decision to be more honest and open with my beloved."

Difference Between Honesty and Garbage Dumping

There is a thin line between being open and honest, and garbage dumping. There is a difference between confession and openness. The Catholic Engaged Encounter writes in its Guide to Writing Openness in Communication, "Confession deals with past behavior while openness deals with present attitudes and feelings."

Despite strictures from the high court to stop dumping garbage at the site, a CCP excavator was seen burying garbage at the parade grounds on Monday evening.

Panaji mayor Tony Rodrigues said he was unaware of the incident, but said that he thinks that segregation was being undertaken at the site.

Commissioner of the CCP Melwyn Vaz said, "We have not deviated in any way from the high court directive. We are just segregating at the site."

Residents of the area who had thought they had rid themselves of the stench of garbage after the high court’s order were surprised to find the CCP back to its old tricks.

The high court had acted after residents of the area had filed a Public Interest Litigation citing that the dumping of garbage was a severe health hazard while also a cause for loss of business.

The YMCA, members of the Methodist church, Rajani Charitable Trust, and Holy Angels Convent first wrote to the CCP, the health director and the Pollution Control Board asking them to stop the dumping of garbage. When there was no response and the YMCA found room bookings being cancelled, including by the Indian Institute of Architects and the state government for the national schools football coaching camp, the residents had approached the court.

Dragged to court, the CCP gave an undertaking that it will stop disposing garbage at the site. It also assured that disinfectants would be sprayed and the plastic waste in the area would be removed. Availability of land is of prime concern to the CCP, which does not have a place for a landfill site or a waste management site.

Among those who have felt the heat of the garbage crisis are the hotels and restaurants in Panaji. Gaurish Dhond, president, Goa Hotels and Restaurants Association, says that the civic body refraining from collecting garbage was not the solution to the problem.

"The garbage crisis is not that of Panaji alone, but has to be handled by the state government. Panaji has a large floating population. We have office-goers , government servants and tourists in the city besides residents.

This means that people who come to the city have at least one meal in a day in Panaji," he said.

It was with great reluctance that the civic administration agreed to the controversial shifting of the Kothrud garbage depot and dump the city's garbage at alternative sites despite their long distance. Now, poor access to the dump yards may well delay the entire project.

Municipal Commissioner Girish Pradhan told Pune Newsline that he will have to meet the district collector on Monday to seek his intervention. He admitted that after conducting site inspections, the PMC would have to acquire private land under the urgency clause to chalk out some kind of approach road to the locations.

A total of 10 sites had been suggested to dispose of the city's garbage out of which the PMC had been directed to take possession of three located on the outskirts of the city. The district collectorate had in a letter dated March 10 written to the Pune Municipal Commissioner to take possession of the three alternate sites - 28 hectares at Mhatobichi Alandi, 109 hectares at Wadgaon Shinde and eight hectares at Yevlewadi to dispose of the garbage.

Owing to the long distance of these sites, the administration had pressed for acquiring the nearby Wadgaon Budruk and Katraj locations. However, these options do not seem feasible anymore. The site at Katraj is located in the ghats which has no approach road. It is not physically possible to climb that stretch to dump the garbage, PMC officials said while the location of Wadgaon Budruk is also likely to be ruled out as there are residential localities. In fact, residents are likely to protest in the event of the PMC dumping the garbage there.

The Yevlewadi site is atop a hill to which again there is no access. Private land will have to be acquired on the stretch which again would delay the entire project. The airport authority's objection to dumping the garbage at Wadgaon Shinde which falls in ``flying zone'' is likely to rule out this site as well.

Incidentally, the PMC has no ``official'' access to its existing Urali Devachi site. Nearly 450 metric tonnes of garbage are dumped at the site which was made operational from 1990-91. Nine years later the officials have to pass through private land with the help of police as the properties have yet to be acquired. According to an official, the garbage trucks are even stoned by the villagers of Mantarwadi if that they pass via that route.

Elephants, hyenas, baboons and birds all gather at the dumping site in Chobe to feed. Just this year, three elephants have died after consuming plastic from the garbage heap.

Thunya Sedodoma, the principal wildlife warden in the park, said that last year, plastics were found in the stomach of a dead elephant. She said it is not uncommon to see plastic in the feces of elephants. Sedodoma said that this year alone, the park has recorded over 70 deaths of wildlife, all related to feeding from the garbage dump

Isau Mbanga, the Chobe District Council secretary said they have no choice but to continue dumping garbage at the site while they construct a new landfill nearby: “We have a serious land problem in the Chobe, unlike other district councils. We are building the second landfill at the same site because we are trying to minimize land use,” he said. He said that the Chobe District Council does not have compactors to bury the rubbish, although it is hoped that they will be able to buy the equipment within a few months.

Mbanga did say that the new landfill will have an electric fence meant to keep wildlife, including elephants, away from the garbage.

Now I won’t pretend to have any grand ideas about how to solve the problem of elephants consuming plastic from a landfill in Botswana. Nor do I think it would be fair to complain, as I am not living a plastic-free life. However, it is a poignant and painful reminder to me of how no trash ever simply “goes away.”

In Sonoma County, California, where I live, we filled up our landfill in 2005, and now have reserved space at the new one being built on the Cortina Indian Rancheria in Colusa County, 150 miles away. On an Indian Reservation!

This story of the Botswana elephants is just another daily reminder to myself to be careful, to do everything I can to keep as much out of the waste stream as possible. Another reminder to be diligent about using cloth bags, reusable containers and lunchboxes, to keep composting, even in the city, to recycle my boxes, and wash out my plastic bags.

NAIL-A-DUMPER

It is illegal to dump solid waste such as trash, garbage, appliances, furniture, pallets, yard waste, tires and any type of construction and demolition material such as roofing materials, structural lumber, windows and doors.

In 1992, the Nail -A- Dumper Hotline was established as a multi-agency environmental enforcement program. You are asked to report illegal dumping that occurs anywhere in Franklin County, 24 hour a day seven days a week.

Trash and garbage are ideal environments for rats, mice and other rodents, ticks, flies and mosquitoes that, in many cases, transmit diseases. In addition, illegally dumped material causes heightened risk of physical injury from contact with broken glass, sharp metal, and other waste.

Decaying garbage and yard waste create unpleasant odors, and harm our environment. Many materials that are dumped contain toxic or hazardous substances that could threaten surface or groundwater supplies.

Open dumps are found along secondary roads, utility right-of-ways, watercourses, on abandoned lots, in open fields, near construction sites, and along railroad tracks. Many times the owner is unaware that the dumping is occurring. However, the property owner is ultimately responsible for the proper disposal of any solid waste deposited on his/her property.

If you see someone dumping, or even know of a site that seems to be a problem, pick up the phone and call the Nail-A- Dumper Hotline at 871-5322.

When you call the hotline you will be asked several important questions:

Address of where the dumping took place Township or municipality where the dumping occurred A description of the dumper, including gender, race, age and approximate height and weight License plate number and description of the vehicle A description of what type of material has been dumped

The operator will also ask your name and phone number, both of which will be kept confidential. This information is necessary in case the investigating agency needs further information. Do not worry if you do not have the answers to all the questions you are asked.

"DUMPING GARBAGE ON NEIGHBORS"

The EPA rejects a plea by three states to curb acid rain

"We don't intend to tolerate continued discrimination borne of eastbound winds and hidebound bureaucrats," declared Richard Thornburgh, the Republican Governor of Pennsylvania, in 1980. Thornburgh was referring to his demand that the federal Environmental Protection Agency stop other states from befouling Pennsylvania's air in violation of the 1970 Clean Air Act. New York and Maine joined Pennsylvania in petitioning the EPA to order seven states, mostly in the Midwest, to reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions that are carried eastward by prevailing winds and fall in the form of acid rain.

Last week the EPA finally responded. The agency said, in a proposed ruling that presumably will become final after a mandatory 30-day period for any public objections to be heard, that it intended to reject the petition. The ruling contends that the Clean Air Act can be invoked only against the interstate transmission of specific pollutants cited in the law and that acid rain is not one of them.

The agency argued that the scientific link between sources of sulfur dioxide and the impact of acid rain on the three states had not yet been demonstrated to its satisfaction. This reasoning is in line with the claim by EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus that numerous studies (including one prepared for the White House) were not persuasive in concluding that this form of pollution actually causes the damage that has been observed in Northeastern forests and lakes. He has asked for yet more research before committing his agency to ordering the polluting states to reduce their sulfur-dioxide emissions substantially.

Officials of the suing states were distressed by the EPA position. Thornburgh suggested that it continued a pattern of "discriminatory enforcement." New York's Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo claimed that his state has "the most comprehensive program in the nation to reduce acid rain, but 90% of the acid rain killing our lakes originates in other states. The Administration is leaving us all but defenseless." As for Maine's Democratic Governor Joseph Brennan, he angrily accused the Administration of "saying, in effect, it's O.K. to dump your garbage on your neighbor's lawn."

The industrial and commercial waste generated from Pune that is dumped in Urali Devachi, about 25 kilometers from the city, is creating a host of problems for the nearby villagers .

Urali Devachi village has been turned into a garbage dumping ground for tonnes of waste generated by the citys nearly five million plus population.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) shifted the dumping ground from Kothrud to Urali Devachi, located on Pune-Saswad road, in 1999.

Over 1,250 tonnes of garbage, including plastic waste, is dumped everyday at the five-acre dumping ground close to the village.

Villagers complain that they are facing a host of problems, mainly relating to health, due to contamination and pollution.

Villagers have been forced to abandon farmlands, which have been strewn with polythene bags and waste material brought by winds from the garbage dump.

Ground water has also been contaminated. Dengue, malaria, diarrhoea are common ailments people are suffering with, besides the menace of stray dogs.

There is lot of percolation from the garbage dump. People are falling ill. The water is contaminated. Corporation officials had promised clean water. They have also laid a pipeline but there is no water, said Dnyaneshwar Admane, the village head.

Tatya Saheb Bhadale, a village youth, said: Because of this, people from nearby areas are not giving their daughters in marriage to boys in our village. Everyone here is facing a lot of problems.

The residents have opposed Pune Municipal Corporations (PMC) recent move to open new landfills around the village.

The PMC is yet to undertake work at the dumping ground on the Central Government sponsored Solid Waste Management and Drainage Programme, for which the funds were recently earmarked.

CCP FOUND DUMPING GARBAGE AT CAMPAL PARADE GROUNDS AGAIN

PANAJI: The Corporation of the city of Panaji was found dumping garbage at the

Despite strictures from the high court to stop dumping garbage at the site, a CCP excavator was seen burying garbage at the parade grounds on Monday evening.

Panaji mayor Tony Rodrigues said he was unaware of the incident, but said that he thinks that segregation was being undertaken at the site.

Commissioner of the CCP Melwyn Vaz said, "We have not deviated in any way from the high court directive. We are just segregating at the site."

Residents of the area who had thought they had rid themselves of the stench of garbage after the high court’s order were surprised to find the CCP back to its old tricks.

The high court had acted after residents of the area had filed a Public Interest Litigation citing that the dumping of garbage was a severe health hazard while also a cause for loss of business.

The YMCA, members of the Methodist church, Rajani Charitable Trust, and Holy Angels Convent first wrote to the CCP, the health director and the Pollution Control Board asking them to stop the dumping of garbage. When there was no response and the YMCA found room bookings being cancelled, including by the Indian Institute of Architects and the state government for the national schools football coaching camp, the residents had approached the court.

Dragged to court, the CCP gave an undertaking that it will stop disposing garbage at the site. It also assured that disinfectants would be sprayed and the plastic waste in the area would be removed. Availability of land is of prime concern to the CCP, which does not have a place for a landfill site or a waste management site.

Among those who have felt the heat of the garbage crisis are the hotels and restaurants in Panaji. Gaurish Dhond, president, Goa Hotels and Restaurants Association, says that the civic body refraining from collecting garbage was not the solution to the problem.

"The garbage crisis is not that of Panaji alone, but has to be handled by the state government. Panaji has a large floating population. We have office-goers , government servants and tourists in the city besides residents.

THE WORLD'S RUBBISH DUMP: A GARBAGE TIP THAT STRETCHES FROM HAWAII TO JAPAN

A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.The vast expanse of debris - in effect the world's largest rubbish dump - is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it

was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash." When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic," he added.

The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk - which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags - is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.

Mr Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the "North Pacific gyre" - a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it.

He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?"

Mr Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade.

Professor David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, said more research was needed to establish the size and nature of the plastic soup but that there was "no reason to doubt" Algalita's findings.

"After all, the plastic trash is going somewhere and it is about time we get a full accounting of the distribution of plastic in the marine ecosystem and especially its fate and impact on marine ecosystems."

Professor Karl is co-ordinating an expedition with Algalita in search of the garbage patch later this year and believes the expanse of junk actually represents a new habitat. Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere," said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle Institute.

Mr Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. "You only see it from the bows of ships," he said.

According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.

Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic,

Dr Eriksen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles - the raw materials for the plastic industry - are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals

such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple," said Dr Eriksen.

PROTEST ON SEPT 22 IN GURGAON AGAINST GARBAGE DUMP

Residents of DLF City in Gurgaon would hold a rally on September 22 to protest against the dumping of garbage by HUDA near their residence. It has now become life threatening for them with cases of dengue, skin allergies, etc already being reported.

DLF CITY, one of the most posh colonies of Gurgaon, has been going through its worst nightmare for the past three years, due to the nearby garbage dumping site. The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) dumps more than 300 tonnes of the city’s garbage into the Aravalis everyday within 500 metres of DLF Phase I and DLF Phase IV.

The DLF residents have already staged a number of demonstrations against the illegal dumping of garbage on Gurgaon-Faridabad road.

“Residents are already suffering from various skin allergies and cases of dengue are also being reported frequently from the area,” informed Harish Capoor, who is a resident of DLF Phase I and has been fighting against this menace for more than two years now.

Capoor also said that he had filed various RTI petitions and met many HUDA officials, but all in vain. He said that in spite of assurances from the authorities, nothing has been done about it. Capoor informed that the residents are again planning a protest rally at 9am at Gurgaon-Faridabad Chowk near the illegal garbage dump on September 22.

“More than 100 people are expected to participate in the protest,” said PN Raina, secretary, Silver Oaks Condominium Association. Raina also informed that various retired IAS officers, corporate honchos, IT professionals and academicians have already expressed their interest to join the rally.

A number of stray animals, like cows, pigs and dogs have also triggered a threat of diseases and road-accidents. According to Ramesh, senior supervisor, Silver Oaks Apartments, DLF, “People are constantly living under threat of dengue, malaria and waterborne diseases. ” If sources are to be believed, the property rates in the area has also seen serious implications of this site. According to a local resident, “People now think twice before buying a house in DLF.”

Meanwhile, HUDA has assured that a state-of the-art waste management facility will come up in Bhandwari village, 10 kms from the current dumping site, within one and a half years. But the DLF residents say the construction of the project has not yet started. HUDA has deployed a heavy-duty earth moving machine to cover the garbage with sand and bacterial sprays are being used to negate the foul smell and bad effects of the dump.

SRINAGAR TURNING INTO GARBAGE DUMP

Garbage produced from Srinagar city is dumped at Achen and Saidpora. However, the residents of Achen have prevented SMC from dumping garbage there because the unscientific disposal of the waste has been posing severe health problems to the residents.

A DISPUTE between the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the residents of Achen over the dumping of garbage has led to a stalemate. As the SMC finds it difficult to dump the garbage at its Achen dumping ground following violent protests by the residents there, Srinagar is turning into a stinking city.

Mounds of garbage are all over the roads and streets of the entire city - from Lalchowk to Hazratbal, to Soura, to Qamari, to Hyderpora. In some places like Channapora, Alamgari Bazar, Gasiyaz (Zadibal), Khaniyar near Dastagir Sahib’s Ziyarat and Hari Singh High Street, the garbage has been dumped for months. These places stink to high heaven and soil the clothes of the passersby. And with SMC not able to clean the city properly, there is a danger of epidemics breaking out in the city.

“The entire area is stinking as the waste has accumulated here,” says Mudasir Bashir, a resident of Rajbagh. “Nobody is bothered about it. It has been here for several days now and there is a possibility of the outbreak of diseases.”

The situation is even worse on the outskirts of Srinagar city, where people complain of illness because of the heaped garbage. “My two sons have taken ill,” says Nisar Ahmad, a resident of Habak Colony on the outskirts of Srinagar city. Garbage has been dumped outside his house. “We can’t even move out in the evening as the garbage heap is flocked by stray dogs.”

When the deadline set by the agreement expired, the SMC backtracked, terming the agreement between the residents and the former Mayor of SMC as illegal. The residents then took to the streets and prevented the dumping of garbage there. In fact, on Sunday (November 2), police had to declare curfew in the area to allow SMC to dump garbage at the site. The curfew provided an opportunity to SMC to relieve the city of some garbage but it also dumped 1000 metric tonnes of piled up garbage at the place.

“We are open to negotiations with the residents of Achen to resolve this issue,” Mayor of Srinagar city, Salman Sagar said, “We will find a way.” However, with the stalemate continuing and no resolution in sight, the residents of Srinagar city may have to bear the stink for a few more days or maybe a few more weeks.

STUDENTS COMPLAIN OF GARBAGE DUMPING NEAR COLLEGE

Students of an Engineering College in Kovaipudur are gearing up to nip in the bud the problem of reckless dumping of garbage on way to their institution.

Student representatives of the Global Warming Club of the V.L.B. Janakiammal College of Engineering want the dumping of garbage near Arivoli Nagar and its being set ablaze stopped immediately.

Plastic bags

Club members P. Charles Sunny and R. Kalingaraj say plastic bags fly around the open spaces and 4,000 students in the college are affected by the burning of garbage at the open site that is half-a-km from the institution.

Smoke

Strong winds carry both the bags and the smoke into the college, the say.

There are no garbage bins in that area and cleaning could be done only with the intervention of the local councillor, they complain.

Arivoli Nagar is nearly two km from the main Kovaipudur area that comes under the Kuniamuthur municipality.

The municipality is among the local bodies struggling to finds ways for safe and scientific disposal of municipal solid waste.

It is one of the local bodies being considered for merger with the Coimbatore Corporation.

The students allege that waste is being brought from outside Kovaipudur and dumped at this vast open space at Arivoli Nagar.

Appeal

They plan to meet the authorities of the municipality to appeal for measures to end the dumping of garbage near their college.

“Our college starts at 8.45 a.m. and goes on till 5 p.m. The garbage is set fire to sometime in the morning. For most part of the day, smoke from the dump enters the campus and troubles us,” says club member S.Surya.

Every day, a lorry load of garbage is brought to this spot that is about 500 feet from the college and set fire to by the workers who bring it, she says.

The students have not been able to tell the workers to stop this practice and are desperately looking for a solution from the municipality.

Permanent solution

“We have been enduring this problem for the last six months and we hope to have a permanent solution,” says Mr. Charles. Ms. Surya says: “We students are taking up this issue because we have to protect the environment.”

DUMPING RUBBLE, GARBAGE ON STREETS TO COST MOHALI RESIDENTS DEAR

Mohali, July 29 Mohali residents will be fined for dumping rubble and garbage in public places. The Municipal Council (MC) has decided to charge a minimum of Rs 1,000 for removing malba or garbage dumped outside a private house or in its vicinity.

A resolution to this effect was unanimously adopted at the monthly meeting of the civic body at the MC Bhawan in Sector 68 on Tuesday. MC president Rajinder Singh Rana chaired the meeting, which was attended by MLA Balbir Sidhu and other councillors.

The MC engineering department briefed the MC house that the residents mostly dump their waste and garbage in front of their houses or open public places, which not only lead to nuisance and mess but also puts financial burden on the MC in removing it.

To curb this menace, the civic body has decided to charge Rs 1,000 per trolley for lifting garbage.

Even if the volume is less, the charges will remain Rs 1,000. In case of more malba, the MC officials will fix the charges accordingly.

The house also approved funds worth over Rs 3 crore to undertake development works in different parts of the city. The works include construction, repair and maintenance of roads, streets, footpaths, curb channels, traffic signals, parks, road gullies, manholes, augmentation of sewage system and removal of wild growth.

The House also decided to develop and run an open air theatre in Phase X in Mohali on the pattern of Tagore Theatre in Sector 18, Chandigarh. For this purpose, the MC has constituted a panel.

Reacting to an agenda item to provide gum boots worth Rs 19,360 to the staff in Sanitation department, Councillor Kuljit Singh Bedi pointed out that since most of the sanitation work in Mohali was on contract, the MC had already paid the contractor for providing uniforms and gum boots to contractual staff. He added that nowhere the staff were seen wearing it. He said this way the civic body has shelled out lakhs to the contractor and sought an inquiry into the matter.

OPEN GARBAGE DUMP, A HEALTH HAZARD

Rain mixes with the filth and slush spreads all around. With their noses covered with handkerchiefs, hundreds of people, including office-goers and school children navigate to the congested bus stand on the edge of the dump precariously.

Hundreds of buses, cars, autorickshaws, scooters and cyclists wade through the stench...

No, this is not a scene from a remote corner of rural India. This is happening right on the periphery of the so-called 'happening' colonies of South Delhi, Shivalik and Malviya Nagar. The most affected are the F Block residents of Malviya Nagar.

Some years ago, it started as a small dump, but total disregard by the authorities has seen it grow into a huge threat to the residents. Scores of petitions by local residents' welfare associa-tions and complaints by concerned citizens in the area to civic author-ities have yielded nothing so far.

Promises made by politicians on the eve of crucial elections to clean up the mess have remained unfulfilled. Assurances given by former Delhi Minister Yoganand Shastri and Municipal Councillor for Malviya Nagar Jeetendra Kochar have also fallen by the wayside.

This festering open garbage dump has become a major health hazard for Malviya Nagar and Shivalik residents. The president of Shivalik A Block Residents' Welfare Association, M L Lohaty, says, "We have written several times to the authorities. We have asked them to either shift the dump to another location or to cover it and dispose offthe garbage on a regular basis. If politicians and officials are unable to solve the problem, we will have no option but to go to the courts. We want our area to be clean, green and beauti-ful so that we can celebrate our traditional festivals like Diwali, Holi, Karva Chauth out in the open in large numbers."

Adds, K.K. Sareen, a retired official of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) who lives in Shivalik, "I have complained several times about this garbage dump. I had gone to Municipal Corporation and spoke to former Food and Sup-ply Minister Yoga Nand Shastri. The dump is a health hazard for people and the authorities must pay attention to it immediately."

Residents of both these colonies are angry at the indifferent attitude of the authorities. Geeta Sahni of Shivalik A-Block Resident Welfare Association complains, "It is impossible to go out to a temple, or take the children to the park without covering our noses. How can you call this a South Delhi colony? In Greater Kailash, they have covered the garbage, but here it is open and can spread all kinds of diseases in the area. Come summers, it is going to be hell of an-other kind. Blowing hot winds will carry the stench to our balconies and suffocate us. Why must citizens complain all the time? Is civil cleanliness a responsi-bility of the Municipal Corporation authorities?"

Prem Talwar, an F Block resident of Malviya Nagar, says, "Whenever friends and relatives visit us, we do not open door because the dump is next door. We feel ashamed to be living so close to this wretched dump in what is supposed to be a posh colony."

CELLULAR DUMPING SITE IS NOT GARBAGE AFTER ALL

Cells can reuse the chemical messengers that carry genetic information to the machinery that makes proteins. Sometimes cells shuttle the messengers to storage and later reactivate them to make proteins, according to new research.

Learning how cells regulate the newly discovered “mRNA cycle” may provide insights into how the cellular machinery runs amok in diseases like cancer.

Scientists had previously thought the messenger molecules, known as mRNAs, were manufactured, used, decommissioned and then sent on a one-way journey to the garbage dump.

These cellular garbage dumps, called P-bodies, turn out to be storage depots, not landfills. After use, mRNA molecules are temporarily deactivated for storage purposes. The cell can then either destroy the mRNA or recondition pre-used mRNA so it can be put back into service if needed.

P-bodies are also involved in determining whether specific mRNAs are used to make proteins, a process called translation.

"We were surprised to find that the P-bodies were involved in regulating translation," said research team leader Roy Parker, a Regents’ Professor of molecular and cellular biology at The University of Arizona in Tucson and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2003, his lab was the first to name and describe a function for P-bodies.

Parker said of the new finding, "It suggests P-bodies have a much broader role in controlling the activities of the cell than we realized."

Parker and first author Jeff Coller report P-bodies' role in the control of translation in the Sept. 23 issue of the journal Cell. Coller, who did the research while at UA as a postdoctoral fellow with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is now an assistant professor in the Center for RNA Molecular Biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Parker lab's findings about P-bodies serving as storage depots was released online Sept. 1, 2005 and will be published in an upcoming issue of Science. Complete citations for the two papers can be found at the end of this release. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health funded the research.

To live and grow, cells convert the genetic instructions stored in DNA into proteins. However, only some of the myriad instructions stored in genes are useful at any one time. Researchers want to figure out how cells switch from manufacturing one type of protein to another. mRNA molecules are key in the manufacturing process because they carry the protein-assembly instructions from the DNA to the assembly plant.

Although P-bodies were initially identified as just garbage dumps for used mRNA, Parker and his colleagues suspected P-bodies played a more important role in determining which proteins a cell makes.

The researchers investigated whether two proteins known to decommission mRNA, Dhh1p and Pat1p, were involved in regulating the translation of mRNA's instructions into proteins. The scientists did their experiments with common baker's yeast, a one-celled organism known to scientists as Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

To see what happened if the cellular machinery didn't work right, the researchers compared the behavior of mutant yeast cells to normal yeast cells.

Coller and Parker tested mutant cells that lacked one or both proteins to see how they compared with normal cells. Under the microscope, only 10 percent of the mutant cells that lacked both proteins had P-bodies, whereas almost all the normal cells had P-bodies. In addition, the mutant cells could no longer turn off the use of mRNAs under the appropriate conditions. Parker said, "Cells missing these proteins could no longer turn off mRNAs and could no longer make P-bodies."

The team then engineered yeast cells to produce an overabundance of the proteins and repeated the experiments with those cells. Those cells stopped growing. Parker said, "The mRNAs are all driven away from the assembly factories. When you look through the microscope, the cells have huge P-bodies. It's very dramatic."

Overabundance of a human protein similar to Dhh1p occurs in many tumors, but the function of the protein is unknown, Parker said. In another experiment, the team put some mRNA, some protein-assembly plants and some of the human protein, referred to as RCK, into test tubes.

When RCK was added, mRNAs did not enter the assembly plants, suggesting that the human protein prevents cells from translating mRNA's instructions into the proteins that cells need to thrive. "Adding this protein would screw it up," Parker said. "The protein suppresses the translation process."

People initially thought that switching from making one protein to another happened solely by blocking the assembly of the protein-making machinery. Coller and Parker's Cell paper shows that the regulation occurs by determining whether or not mRNA will enter the assembly plant or be shipped to a storage depot. Contrary to previous beliefs, the team suspects the cell can bypass the assembly plant altogether and send unneeded mRNAs straight to P-bodies to be degraded or eventually recycled.

Parker said his lab's next step is examining the potential role of P-bodies in memory and in viral infections.

Jeff Coller and Roy Parker's paper, "General translational repression by activators of mRNA decapping," will be published in the Sept. 23 issue of the journal Cell.

Muriel Brengues, Daniela Teixeira and Roy Parker, all of The University of Arizona, are the authors of the paper, "Movement of eukaryotic mRNAs between polysomes and cytoplasmic processing bodies," that was published online in Science Express on Sept. 1 at www.sciencexpress.org, DOI number: 10.1126/science.1115791.

HC TO BBMP: IDENTIFY PLACE FOR DUMPING GARBAGE

BANGALORE: The High Court of Karnataka on Friday ordered the BBMP to identify a location for dumping the garbage generated by the city.

After hearing a petition filed by garbage transport contractor B R Ganesh and others, Justice Ravi Malimath directed the BBMP to locate a suitable place for dumping the garbage, take approval of the government and file a statement to the court.

The court wondered where BBMP would dump garbage without even identifying a suitable location for the same. "Will you dump it in BBMP offices?" it asked.

Bangalore city generates 3.5 tonnes of garbage every day and there is only one place at Mavallipuram where only 300 tonnes of it can be dumped daily, the petitioners pointed out.

For dumping the remaining garbage there is no place and the officials were only pointing at locations near Doddaballapur where there was resistance from locals to the same, they added.