Following directions from the Karnataka High Court, the newly-constituted Technical Guidance Committee had its first meeting on Friday. The committee was formed with the aim of improving the efficiency of the seven waste processing plants in the city.
As directed by the High Court, it will advice the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on technology to be adopted, biomethanisation and composting facilities in different wards.
It was constituted earlier this month by the BBMP commissioner. It comprises technical experts from the Indian Institute of Science, University of Agricultural Sciences, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research and senior officials from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, who have expertise in waste management.
They include BBMP's Expert Committee on Solid Waste Management member Kalpana Kar, former KSPCB chairperson H.C. Sharatchandra, IISc. scientists Hoysal N. Chanakya and G.L. Shivakumar Babu, soil expert from the IIHR A.N. Ganesh Murthy, expert from the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research G. Selvakumar, and National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology scientist Ajit Haridas.
Committee chairperson and BBMP Commissioner M. Maheshwara Rao has urged members to visit all the processing plants over the next two weeks to assess their status, provide recommendations for scaling up operations and define parameters to monitor the operations on a day-to-day basis.
A press release said that the commissioner would draft the terms of reference for the committee and table the same for discussion and finalisation at the next meeting.
