Making Bengaluru the ‘dirtiest city’ may be the objective of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which appears to be going in the reverse direction when compared to other cities in the country, the Karnataka High Court observed on Friday.
Pointing out that every State is giving ‘top priority for municipal slid waste management but Bengaluru is the only criminal... if this continues then you will have a dooms day...’ A division bench comprising Justice B.S. Patil and Justice B.V. Nagarathna made these oral observations while expressing displeasure over the way in which the BBMP has treated the issue of waste management.
The bench said that it was ‘pained to notice a total lethargy on the part of the BBMP’ in implementing directions issued by the court on November 10, 2017 despite making it clear that the entire action plan, to establish additional plants for managing wastes within the wards by identifying suitable places, should be prepared through the ward committees and later such plans should be placed before the court.
Refusing to accept the explanation given by BBMP counsel that the commissioner did not get reports from the ward committees despite writing letters to the zonal officers concerned and the ward committees to prepare action plans as per the court’s direction, the bench said that the commissioner should have initiated action as per the law if the ward committees had failed to obey the directions.
The court also imposed a cost of ₹50,000 on the BBMP for showing scant regard to a direction issued by the court in November.
Initiate action
Terming inaction on the part of the commissioner as serious, the bench directed the commissioner to immediately initiate action against officials associated with each ward committee, including the elected representatives, for not discharging the task assigned to them.
In the report submitted to the court, the BBMP commissioner has said that 130 of the total 198 ward committees have not submitted any action taken report and 64 ward committees have submitted incomplete reports. Only four ward committees have submitted complete reports indicating that they found ‘no place’ for setting up additional plants for waste processing in their respective wards.
The bench, which is hearing petitions filed in 2012 complaining about the city’s garbage issue, has adjourned further hearing till March 28 while directing the commissioner to file an affidavit showing compliance to the court’s direction, and cautioned that it would initiate strict and stringent action in future.
