Only segregated waste to be picked up from Sept 1 in Bengaluru

Rag pickers will be given the responsibility to pick up dry waste twice a week.

Only wet waste will be picked up during the door-to-door collection from September 1 in Bengaluru. Steep fines will be levied if households don’t segregate and give mixed waste.

BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad told reporters that new garbage tenders have almost been finalised. As per the new tender conditions, the contractors have to pick up only segregated wet waste from households, while rag pickers will be given the responsibility to pick up dry waste twice a week.

The proposal to increase the fines would be sent to the BBMP council for approval. “We are also including this in the Solid Waste Management (SWM) bylaws. The draft has been prepared and will be placed before the committee chaired by the Mayor,” he said.

He also said the aim was to achieve 100% door-to-door collection and at least 90% segregation by September. Houses that don’t give any waste to be picked up will be tracked. The link workers will visit these houses to ascertain why.

The BBMP is also proposing to increase the SWM cess to 15% of the property tax from the existing 3%. “We are spending nearly ₹1,000 crore annually on solid waste management and we get ₹50 crore from cess. The proposal to hike the cess will be placed before the BBMP council,” he said and added that those who have in-situ composting will be eligible for a 50% rebate in the cess as well.

To levy and collect fines, the BBMP has tied up with HDFC Bank, which will provide 500 handheld machines. The civic body had earlier floated a tender to procure such machines, which has now been scrapped. These handheld machines will be given to 233 marshals and medical officers. These officials have been instructed to crack down on those using banned plastic items as well.

“If these measures and conditions specified under the tender are implemented, the city will wear a new look and ranking under Swachch Bharath is also likely to improve,” he said.

City Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun urged citizens to corporate with the BBMP and segregate waste at source, while Opposition Leader Padmanabha Reddy said the onus was on civic officials to ensure compliance by contractors and citizens.