On Thursday, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Administrator Gaurav Gupta, while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Bengaluru Mission 2022, said: “There is no proposal to collect any additional money from citizens for solid waste management.”
However, senior officials in the BBMP, who spoke to The Hindu on condition of anonymity, said that no decision had been taken on either levying a service charge or not collecting it.
BBMP had even written to Bescom seeking help in collection of the service charge. Senior officials said that Bescom was yet to respond to the proposal.
An official said the Solid Waste Management (SWM) bylaws, approved by the government earlier this year, allow the BBMP to levy and collect service charge for door-to-door collection of waste. This service charge, which is separate from SWM Cess that is collected along with property tax, ranges from ₹200 to ₹14,000 a month.
The cess, mandated by the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, is for the general upkeep of the city, clearing black spots and street cleaning. Service charge, on the other hand, is for the delivery of a specific service. In this case, door-to-door collection of different streams of waste.
There has been lot of opposition from several quarters to the proposal to levy a service charge. On Wednesday, Congress workers had staged a protest against the proposal.
