Protesters say they want daily collection of waste from homes and punishment for those who dump garbage on the roads.
Joining a string of protests civic amenities in Bengaluru in recent weeks, residents of Kathriguppe and Srinivasnagara neighbourhoods took to streets on Tuesday, complaining about the frequent dumping of garbage.
Organised by a group called Jaagruta Nagarika Vedike the protests saw wide participation including by veteran freedom fighter HS Doreswamy, still upright in his nineties.
"Even though Bangalore has grown as a city in terms of IT sectors and other advancements, we still don't know how to segregate waste properly. They do not dump the garbage in one place, they dump it wherever they can. So that is why there is garbage everywhere, including the city areas. What the contractors are doing is picking up the waste from one place and dumping it into another," he said.
With the impending protest garbage was cleared from the area the previous night but residents say that the dumps will return.
Protesters say they want daily collection of waste from homes and punishment for those who dump garbage on the roads.
"Here, what they do is take garbage from houses and then dump it by the side of the roads, or they dump it in some vacant sites. Today they take it from my house and put it in front of somebody else's house. When we protest there, they take it from that house and put it somewhere else. This is what is happening in our locality," one of the protesters, Indra, said.
The administration has been appealing to the public to do their part in keeping the city clean - their main request has been for households to segregate their waste at source before it is collected.
"I was very happy and confident that I am in this city because this was supposed to be the garden city, one of the best cities in India but now I feel ashamed. Our whole life now at present, is totally wasted in fighting for our basic necessities," a resident, Hemlatha, said.