Even as Bangalore has witnessed a series of problems pertaining to disposal of garbage in recent years, most of the recommendations of ‘Plan Bengaluru 2020’ — a report put together by Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure and Development Task Force (ABIDe) and accepted by the B.S. Yeddyurappa-led State government in 2010 — on waste management have not yet been implemented.
The report had recognised nine lacunae in waste management in the city and recommended steps to correct them.
An effort was made to implement only the recommendation on segregation of waste at source. However, the programme failed to really take off. In addition, projects aiming to convert waste to power have also failed to contribute significantly.
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The report had also recommended decentralisation of waste management, which would ensure that only the most ‘difficult to treat’ material was taken to tertiary treatment plants, while the rest was treated as close to the point of generation as possible. It also suggested that small waste treatment plants be established in nalas.
However, the civic authority has not directed its efforts in this direction. Though a programme, ‘Kasa Mukta’ was introduced in 22 wards to treat waste in the ward itself, it was not expanded to all wards.
The report also recommended that the community living near landfills be sufficiently compensated and that the BBMP avail permission from the local body to dump waste. However, no effort was made in this regard, resulting in the residents of Mandur protesting and the debate on waste management in the city being reignited.
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Ashwin Mahesh, who was part of ABIDe and played a major role in authoring the report, said the recommendations made in the report should not be trashed just because the report was commissioned by the BJP government.
He pointed out that though the Ruling Party in the BBMP was the BJP, the recommendations had not beenimplemented and the report was gathering dust.