Initiative to recycle waste hangs fire in Bangalore

September 01, 2014 10:38 am | Updated 10:38 am IST

BANGALORE - 31.08.2014 :  Dry waste collection centre at Vijayanagar, on West of Cord road, in Bangalore on August 31, 2014.     Photo: K. Murali Kumar.

BANGALORE - 31.08.2014 : Dry waste collection centre at Vijayanagar, on West of Cord road, in Bangalore on August 31, 2014. Photo: K. Murali Kumar.

A community project to recycle waste, which could have been a model for solid waste management in the city, has remained on paper for the last eight years. The Vijayanagara Nagarika Vedike’s proposal to recycle solid waste from 300 houses in Vijayanagar, which received Central funding, is yet to take off for want of land.

The Rs. 9.5-lakh project had got Rs. 4.75 lakh as the first instalment under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in 2009. However, the amount remains unspent.

With the project delayed, residents in and around Vijayanagar and Govindarajanagar continue to send the solid waste to the landfill. Worse still, piles of garbage are a common feature in this area.

“Had our project taken off, we would have been locally processing waste and not sending it to the landfill,” said T. Ramu, general secretary of the vedike, a residents’ welfare association. Apart from the amount sanctioned from the Centre, Mr. Ramu has mobilised around Rs. 20,000 under the community participation fund to run the project.

He said the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was yet to give them land to run the project. Although the BBMP had allotted vacant land at Marenahalli, the civic body, in December 2011, decided to take back the land, reportedly after complaints from the residents nearby.

This was after several rounds of garbage segregation training sessions were held for residents in the Central Excise Layout at Marenahalli and civic body workers. “Our entire project was ready to take off. We had even planned on how residents will be involved in waste segregation. But the project came to a halt abruptly after the BBMP said that we could not use the Marenahalli land,” Mr. Ramu said.

Members of the vedike failed to get any response to the repeated letters written to the civic body. Following this, they approached Councillor of the Govindarajanagar ward Mohan Kumar in March 2013, who later assured them that the boulevard land opposite the CPWD quarters along the Service Road would be handed over for the project.

The project, if implemented, would help in ensuring that 300 kg of wet waste collected from 300 houses in the Govindarajanagar ward are recycled and converted into manure every day.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.