In a novel way of protest against the village government body, the panchayat, for its failure in tackling the plastic waste menace, volunteers of the Benaulim villagers action committee (BVAC) in Goa, India, on Monday morning offloaded two pickup loads of plastic garbage collected by them on Sunday, right in front of the panchayat premises.

What irked the BVAC members was the affidavit filed by the panchayat in the high court hearing the petition with regard to the garbage issue stating that the panchayat has put in place a mechanism for collection and disposal of plastic waste from the village.

Rudolf Barreto of the BVAC who oversaw the garbage collection drive said that the exercise was aimed at "sensitising the panchayat about the enormity of the plastic waste problem in the village."

"They can't run away from the problem by filing a false affidavit that they have taken steps to solve the issue just to escape strictures from the court. The very fact that we managed to collect two pickup trucks of plastic waste from various parts of the village in a single day nails the panchayat's lie. As there has been no proper agreement signed between the panchayat and the contractor over garbage collection, the panchayat's claims sound hollow," Barreto told Times of India.

Further picking holes in the affidavit, Barreto said that the panchayat's claim of setting up a composting unit near the panchayat building, was in fact a pit dug by a building contractor to store water.

(Source: Irked BVAC dump plastic waste in front of panchayat [Times of India])