Bangaloreans failed to rise to the occasion on Monday when garbage segregation at source became mandatory. According to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) estimate, only 15 per cent of the citizens segregated waste and gave away only wet waste to the pourakarmikas.
In many areas, pourakarmikas had to caution people against discarding waste in plastic covers.
“The pourakarmika who was collecting garbage in Rajajinagar was telling the citizens that he would not accept the garbage if it is given in plastic covers,” said Ratnakar Kumar (name changed), a resident.
Uncollected waste
Residents of Hegde Nagar and Banashankari 2 Stage were surprised when the garbage itself was not collected from their homes. “When I enquired, I was told that more than half the pourakarmikas had not come to work as they had not been paid for the past two months,” said Imran G. of Banashankari 2 Stage.
However, the response to the BBMP’s new rule was good in some areas, such as Sanjaynagar, Ganganagar. In other areas, the officials went around telling people to segregate waste and give away only wet waste.
Mumtaz, a resident of D.J. Halli, said that she never knew anything about the civic body’s decision to enforce segregation of waste.
‘Teething problems’
According to BBMP’s estimates, 2,766.8 tonnes of mixed waste and 514.69 tonnes of segregated waste were collected in the eight zones.
Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy and Commissioner Rajneesh Goel are optimistic. They believe that loopholes and hurdles in the implementation of segregation at source will be set right in a month’s time.
The BBMP has nominated a senior official as ward officer to monitor the garbage situation.
In a public appeal, Mr. Goel said: “We understand this is a big task and will take time to stabilise and plug all deficiencies in the system. Our emphasis will be on showing daily improvements in our performance and micro manage all problem spots. We propose to get daily information from all ward officers, which will be uploaded on the BBMP website.”
‘Become role models’
Mr. Venkatesh Murthy claimed that he had written to all councillors asking them to adopt segregation in their houses and become role models for citizens.
He would go on a door-to-door campaign from Tuesday to urge people in his ward to segregate garbage and asked other councillors to follow suit.
“We should keep up the tempo. That is the only permanent solution to the city’s garbage problems,” he said.
He added that a few waste-related projects would be commissioned in three months. A private company that had shown interest in setting up a plastic-to-crude oil plant would be given the work order in a week.
“The company needs 80 tonnes of plastic a day. They have proposed to install special bins in select areas to collect plastic waste. Their plant will be commissioned in two months’ time. Another company has been given the contract to recycle the waste that is accumulated in Mandur,” he added.
