Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday lodged a complaint with the Commissionerate Police against a social outfit for alleged unlawful entry and protest at Integrated Waste Management Facility at Palasuni. 

The complaint has been filed by BMC Commissioner Rajesh Prabhakar Patil at the Mancheswar Police Station seeking investigation and legal action against those involved in the protest at the mega waste processing unit for safeguard of public infrastructure. 

A group of people led by Basudev Bhatta, the president of Bhubaneswar Unnayan Parishad, forcefully entered the premises of the BMC facility, which is in a progressive stage to make its startup, at around 8 am on May 25, 2025, and were engaged in a violent protest, creating a law and order situation at unit, the BMC mentioned in its complaint. 

The waste management facility at Palasuni includes several key components, including a 150 Tons per Day (TPD) Mega Material Recovery Facility (MRF), a Coconut Waste Processing Unit with a capacity of 10,000 coconuts per day, a 20 TPD Green Waste Processing Unit for biomass briquette production, and a 5 TPD facility for converting low-grade plastic into paver blocks. 

According to reports, a delegation of Bhubaneswar Unnayan Parisad had visited the waste management facility to discuss the sanitation programmes undertaken by the BMC. During the visit, the outfit members were informed about the commissioning of the facility by June 2025 and other upcoming facilities in the city for scientific waste management in Bhubaneswar. 

However, the members of the Bhubaneswar Unnayan Parishad unlawfully entered the facility premises, disrupted the ongoing work at the site posing threat to the public infrastructure. 

The outfit members and other locals reportedly performed the inauguration rituals at the facility alleging that the unit has already been commissioned a few months ago and not operationalised. 

They reportedly demanded the BMC to immediately transport dry waste collected from the city to the Palasuni processing unit to ease the burden on the Gadakana temporary transit station (TTS) near Sainik school and phase out dumping at the site completely.

The area under BMC jurisdiction generates 800 metric tons of waste daily. Out of this, about 194 metric tons of wet waste is processed in 37 MCCs and 120 metric tons of dry waste is processed in 22 MRFs. Out of the total waste, 146 tonnes of RDF is sent to various cement plants, while 340 metric tonnes is processed at TTS. As per the directions of the NGT, BMC is taking various steps based on the long-term integrated waste management rules in its own area.
 
Recently, an agreement has been signed with Oil India Limited for setting up a 200 TPD compressed biogas plant. It will be operational in the next 1.5 years at Meher Palli. A 15 MT per day semi-automatic material recovery facility (M. R. F.) will be operational at TTS. Added to this, a 30 K. L. D. Effluent Treatment Plant, extension of additional 172 m long and 29 m wide windrow shed will be made. E-waste is collected every Saturday and is given to the government approved organization for recycling, the BMC said.

Pertinent to mention that Odisha Governor has expressed his satisfaction regarding the steps taken by BMC to address the issues and challenges in Solid Waste Management.