Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on Monday lodged a police complaint against members of Bhubaneswar Unnayan Parishad (BUP) for allegedly forcefully entering a newly-constructed waste processing unit at Palasuni and inaugurating it in the presence of a 500-strong mob. The outfit, which has been fighting against waste dumping by BMC near Sainik School, maintained that it inaugurated the plant as its operation will help clear waste from the dump yard. BMC called it intrusion and criminal action as it has already planned the inauguration.“A large group of unknown individuals led by Basudev Bhatta, president of BUP, and its members unlawfully and forcefully entered the premises of the facility and engaged in violent protest. The miscreants violated various provisions of BNS. BMC staff present at the units were also threatened,” said the BMC complaint at Mancheswar police station.BMC’s facility at Palasuni includes a 150-tonne per day (TPD) capacity mega material recovery facility (MRF), a processing unit for 10,000 coconuts per day, and 20 TPD green waste processing units. The construction work was complete, and BMC was slated to inaugurate it. “When the BUP members led by Bhatta met us, we assured them of running the Palasuni facility soon. But, they took law into their hands,” said BMC additional commissioner Suvendu Sahu.The outfit strongly demanded immediate removal of the garbage dump, emphasising the severe inconvenience and long-standing suffering of the local residents due to the stench. “On Sunday, we gave in writing to Mancheswar police that we would go to the facility with 500 people as a symbol of inauguration to draw the attention of the govt. BMC has been unduly dilly-dallying on the operationalisation of the facility. Residents have been bearing the stench for the past eight months,” Bhatta told TOI.He refuted the BMC allegation that the BUP members unlawfully barged into the premises and threatened staff. According to the outfit, the garbage dump near Sainik School, where 350 metric tonnes of waste is processed daily, has made living conditions unbearable for the residents. Notably, ever since the civic body stopped waste dumping at Daruthenga, a village on the city outskirts in May, it has been dumping at least 50 per cent of the total 800 metric tonnes of waste generated daily near Sainik School dump yard.