The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has proposed to increase the penalty for littering and indiscriminate dumping of waste, not segregating waste at source, dumping construction and building waste, and using banned plastic items. The revised amounts are likely to come into effect from September.
At a press conference on Thursday, BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said that the civic body had sent the proposal to the government.
“The government directed the BBMP to finalise and incorporate the enhanced fines in the Solid Waste Management (SWM) by-laws. The draft of the new by-laws (separate for BBMP) for effective implementation of SWM Rules 2016 has been prepared,” he said and added that the State-level SWM Policy, which is being prepared by the Urban Development Department, will be adopted by the BBMP.
To levy the fines, the BBMP had already begun recruitment of 233 marshals, and had also tied up with HDFC Bank, which would provide 500 hand-held machines for collecting fines on the spot. The machines will be used by assistant executive engineers, medical officers of health, health inspectors and marshals to levy fines on offenders.
“The BBMP had earlier floated a tender to procure the devices, which was later scrapped. HDFC Bank is providing the machines free of cost. Several other corporations are using these machines,” said Mr. Prasad, adding that fines levied can be tracked online.
Map all bulk generators
While bulk generators are already mandated to have in situ processing, the BBMP has developed an application to map their locations. It has also proposed to provide 50% rebate on SWM cess for those who have in situ processing facilities.
The civic body is also proposing to float tenders and enlist agencies to collect waste from bulk generators. These agencies will have to pay a royalty to transport the waste from bulk generators to the BBMP's processing plants.
Construction debris
Work on setting up seven waste-to-energy plants is under way. Mr. Prasad said some proposals are pending before the government while tenders are being evaluated for one plant, and clearances are being obtained for others.
For better construction debris management, the BBMP is proposing to fix rates and empanel agencies to pick up the debris on demand and dump it in sites identified by the civic body. The tender for the same will be floated in a week.
Smart Control Room
A smart control room is being set up to monitor these initiatives. According to officials, it will be in place in two months.
A pilot study on dumping patterns at black spots and on roads was taken up in a couple of places in East zone. According to the BBMP's Joint Commissioner (SWM) Sarfaraz Khan, the civic body has installed CCTV cameras at a few black spots. The cameras will capture dumping activity, apart from taking pictures of vehicles and registration numbers at the site. This data can be accessed and monitored at the smart control room.
Expenditure down
The BBMP has been spending nearly ₹1,000 crore on SWM. However, after the garbage collection vehicles were fitted with GPS and RFID equipment, a lot of fake billing was detected. This, along with biometric attendance of pourakarmikas, has helped the BBMP cut down on double billing and other unnecessary expenditure.
“The spend on SWM has reduced by nearly half. Once all the proposed measures are in place, the expenditure is likely to come down further,” said Mr. Khan.
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