PUNE: Firm on their agitation plan against the dumping of the city’s garbage at the Phursungi depot, the village residents have set the civic administration Friday deadline to fulfil its infrastructure support promise.The Phursungi residents have threatened to stop the garbage trucks from going to the depot to put pressure on the civic administration and the Pune Municipal Corporation PMC ), which still dumps a large volume of garbage at the depot there.A section of Phursungi residents claimed that open dumping of trash had gone up in the past one year instead of reducing. They stressed the merger of fringe villages led to dumping of more garbage. They pointed out that the garbage treatment facility at the depot was almost non-functional, resulting in open dumping and accumulation of large heaps of garbage all over.Ahead of the agitation, some residents of Phursungi on Tuesday met municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao at PMC with their demands. Rao assured a solution and said he would ensure that residents did not have to resort to any agitation again. Mayor Mukta Tilak also recently visited the village and announced various development works. But neither could pacify the villagers.The Phursungi residents on Wednesday stated that the agitation had not been suspended. Suhas Khutwad, a Phursungi resident associated with the garbage issue for long, said the agitation was not to pressurize the administration but to put forward the demands of the residents not met over the past one year.“There are two more days. We hope PMC authorities would take a firm stand regarding the issues. If they fail to satisfy us, we shall stop the garbage trucks. Our stand is clear. We want the administration to meet all our demands, including solution to open dumping of garbage and jobs to 57 youths in PMC, at the earliest. Sadly, nothing has happened in the past one year or after the merger of both the villages in the PMC limits,” Khutwad said.The residents of the neighbouring Uruli Devachi extended their moral support to the agitation, but were yet to decide on their participation. Bhagwan Bhadale , a resident of Uruli Devachi, said they supported the demands of Phursungi residents.“All their demands are genuine and should be met at the earliest. As of now, Uruli villagers have not taken a decision about active participation in the agitation. A meeting will be convened soon to discuss the issue,” he said.

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