Though Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has given bulk generators of waste, including apartment owners, two months to begin processing their wet waste and garden waste, BBMP’s private garbage contractors, scenting blood, have already begun demanding huge sums from apartment owners to cart away garbage.
In some parts of Bangalore, pourakarmikas reportedly steered clear of apartment buildings saying the onus is on the owners to set up a system for composting or biomethanisation of their waste.
Though BBMP Commissioner Rajneesh Goel said apartments have a two-month grace period, a few private garbage contractors in a few localities have begun demanding money from apartments to lift the garbage from the premises.
Staggering sum
Basheer, secretary of an apartment complex association in Fraser Town, said the representative of the private garbage contractor in the area demanded a staggering Rs. 4,000 per week to clear the waste from 30 apartments. Nagaraju, who claimed to be the contractor’s supervisor, said they have to engage men and deploy a vehicle to clear the garbage. “Also, we need to pay money to dump the garbage,” he said. However, after some spirited bargaining, the price was brought down to Rs.1,000 a month, to be shared by the 30 households.
A resident of an apartment in Nagasandra said private contractors were charging to lift garbage and issuing receipts in the name of BBMP.
Last Sunday when the association members brought it to the notice of the BBMP authorities, the officials said that they would ensure that the garbage is lifted regularly.
However, a spokesperson for the apartment residents said: “Private contractors charge a huge sum. We cannot leave the waste in the apartment, so we have decided to outsource waste management to an NGO.”
Garbage piling up
Meanwhile, garbage is beginning to pile up across many apartments in the city, forcing owners’ associations to take steps to not only lift it but also enforce mandatory segregation of waste into wet and dry.
Residents of an apartment complex in Vijayanagar are bracing themselves for an increase in the monthly maintenance. “We were told that the recent increase in power tariff and the additional expenditure incurred on procuring bins for segregating waste into dry and wet would be passed on to us,” said a resident of Brindavan Apartment complex. Some apartments in the city have their own composting units. For example, in a large apartment complex near Majestic, residents dump unsegregated waste but the maintenance staff do the needful. “This has been happening for a long time in our apartment,” said Vijay, a maintenance worker. As the residents dump waste into a garbage chute, there is little scope for segregated waste packets.
‘No complaints yet’
Meanwhile, Salma Fahim, Deputy Commissioner (Solid Waste Management), BBMP, said the civic authority had not received any complaint against garbage contractors demanding money. She said the apartment owners can contact the zonal commissioners to redress their grievances.
