A week ago, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanara Palike (BBMP) had repaired the pothole-ridden Old Madras Road a day prior to the Chief Minister inaugurating a hospital on that road.
On Monday, when Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar went to a few places in the city to inspect garbage clearance, mounds of waste that usually lay uncleared were removed miraculously.
The Chief Minister’s inspection comes after the Karnataka High Court pulled up the State government last week for not acting though Bangaloreans are facing serious garbage problem and even after the High Court took cognisance of the problem after filing of the public interest litigation petitions.
Meanwhile, after inspecting the garbage clearance and dry waste collection centres in Jayanagar, Mr. Shettar said that civic amenity sites could be used for garbage segregation purposes.
He said he would direct the BDA to give at least five CA sites to the BBMP in the layouts that the authority would be developing. The BBMP could set up waste management plants in those CA sites to manage waste generated by residents of these layouts.
A communiqué stated that Mr. Shettar assured the BBMP that he would direct the Revenue Department to allot government land to the BBMP within the next 10 days. BBMP would use lands at Kannahalli, Seegehalli and Anekal to set up state-of-the-art decentralised waste processing units.
He directed the civic body to change its waste management strategy and give impetus to decentralised waste processing. The waste processing centres could be set up in various locations to reduce environmental impact and regulate the movement of garbage trucks.
Mr. Shettar suggested the setting up of waste processing centres of 300-tonne capacity in all Assembly constituencies in the city to help manage the waste at the constituency level for another decade. The BBMP had been directed to prepare a ward-wise city sanitation plan for decentralised waste management for the next decade. The All India Institute of Local Self Government is preparing plans for two wards as a pilot project, which would be later replicated in all wards, the release added.
Recruitment
The communiqué stated that the government has okayed the BBMP’s proposal to recruit 50 environment engineers on priority. The vacant posts of environment engineers would be filled in a week’s time. The expert committee constituted in September to assist the BBMP in managing the garbage crisis will meet every Saturday. The BBMP has directed to implement the recommendations of this committee.
Meanwhile, to process the 10 lakh tonnes of accumulated waste in the landfills, the BBMP had discussions with Hanjir Bio Tech, Coromandal Fertilizers Ltd., Waste Organic Pvt. Ltd., who have agreed to use bio-mining and install their facilities within four months.
Seventeen companies have also sent their proposals for bio-mining at the landfills. The government has constituted an expert committee to evaluate and finalise the proposals.
Mr. Shettar directed the BBMP to focus on capacity building and sensitisation of officials. The State Institute for Urban Development (SIUD), Mysore, will organise two-day training programme for senior officials from November 25 in this regard.
