With the countdown beginning for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to clean up the city before the month-end, the civic body has decided to rope in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) to speed up the work.
BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad has ordered all solid waste management officials, joint commissioner of each zone and junior health inspectors to work to with NGOs and RWAs to clear “visible” garbage.
On Saturday, the High Court of Karnataka, which had come down heavily on the civic body for its handling of potholes and advertisement hoardings, directed the BBMP “to come out with concrete and substantial results as regards cleanliness in the city by October 31”.
While BBMP officials said they would submit an affidavit to showcase the plans and processes for waste management, including seven composting sites and 168 dry waste collection centres that process more than 4,200 tonnes of s olid waste daily, they are not taking any chances with “visible” garbage.
“We are following the High Court directions and have formulated a plan. While door-to-door collection is strengthened, we are focussing on the accumulation of garbage after 11 a.m. when black spots start to appear. Junior health inspectors have been asked to conduct a special drive to identify these black spots and deal with them,” said Randeep D., Additional Commissioner, Health and Solid Waste Management, BBMP.
Mechanical sweepers will be put on “hyper drive” in the central business district, while officials have been told to ramp up enforcement in terms of fines for those found littering in bulk.
‘Window dressing’
However, four days is little to do anything more than window dressing of the garbage problem, said N.S. Ramakanth, a member of the BBMP’s Solid Waste Management Committee. “At best, the High Court’s orders will see joint commissioners buck up and do what they should have been doing anyway. Instead of setting up processes to ensure garbage does not accumulate in the city, we may end up seeing some reduction in visible garbage only for a few days,” he said.
The analogy he drew was the recent pothole-filling exercise taken up after the HC censure. It drew criticism from various people, who said the “sub-standard” filling done in haste would lead to resurfacing of potholes soon.
