Ex-servicemen may monitor garbage segregation at source

Garbage contractors have been found to be dumping unsegregated waste at street corners to avoid paying for transportation.

Karnataka : Bengaluru : 29/08/2016: BBMP Pourakarmikas loading and unloading garbage from various places which is collected from houses on Gririnagar Main Raod at segregation centre on August 29, 2016. Photo : V Sreenivasa Murthy

Battle-hardened ex-servicemen may fight the city’s garbage menace if a proposal put forward by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is accepted by the Karnataka government.

Unable to enforce garbage segregation at source across the city, BBMP is now turning towards ex-servicemen to enforce “garbage discipline”.

“Every ward will ideally have two ex-servicemen. They will have to ensure that waste is segregated at source by the citizens, and contractors regularly collect and dispose of this waste in a proper manner,” said Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, BBMP.

These ex-servicemen will have their own uniforms and will have the authority to penalise offenders.

The decision follows a suggestion made by N.S. Ramakanth, a garbage expert and member of the Solid Waste Management Round Table, whose survey had found that only 40 per cent of the city was segregating waste.

Though segregation of waste at source is mandatory, not many follow it.

Waste processing plants in the city often struggle to handle mixed waste and this eventually reaches a landfill away from the city.

Transportation problems

Garbage contractors have been found to be dumping unsegregated waste at street corners to avoid paying for transportation.

Sometimes when garbage is not collected for days, residents too begin dumping it on the roads, sources said.

“We are finalising the logistics, including salary, after which short-term tenders will be issued. There are various ex-servicemen groups in the city and we will be handing over this on contract basis,” Mr. Sarfaraz Khan said, adding that the penalisation will be applicable to both citizens and garbage contractors. Ex-servicemen will also report on the ground-level work of the BBMP in each of its wards.

Though welcoming the move, Col. John Serrao from the ECHS Ex-servicemen Group, is slightly apprehensive whether ex-servicemen will be very comfortable with the policing aspects that this venture involves.

“Dealing with civilians and trying to discipline and police them is a Herculean task and very different from what servicemen do while in the service. So, in my opinion, it might not be that easy to get servicemen to do this,” he said.