It is unlikely that garbage woes in the city will be resolved at the earliest as every effort intended towards introducing transparency and reforms in the solid waste management sector — be it introduction of biometric attendance for pourakarmikas or mechanical sweepers — is yet to take off.
Both Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palike (BBMP) officials as well as citizens allege that this is because councillors cutting across party lines are stonewalling these measures.
Multiple attempts by the BBMP to carry out a foolproof audit of the 32,000 pourakarmikas on the rolls submitted by contractors to the civic body in May have been resisted by councillors, who officials allege are in favour of contractors. “We estimate that nearly 40% of the rolls are fake and duplications. The best way to weed them out is implementing biometric attendance, which will automatically clean up the rolls. Though the pilot has been very successful, there is a severe pushback to extending it across the city,” a senior official said. The pilot project is being carried out in Sarvagnanagar Assembly segment, represented by Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George. Senior BBMP officials confirmed to The Hindu that the average attendance in the wards in Sarvagnanagar segment has been less than 60%, indicating the scale of duplication.
This resistance to biometric attendance comes close on the heels of councillors forcing the administration to withdraw an order for a ward-level social audit of pourakarmika rolls in June.
Cleaning up the pourakarmika rolls is a prerequisite to implement the long-pending direct payment.
The BBMP wants to begin direct payment from October 1, but both officials and senior councillors, who did not wish to be named, told The Hindu that contractors and councillors, including those from the Congress, were resisting it. “The motive is clear. They want to ensure the continuation of the contractor raj. There are many councillors and even MLAs in the city who themselves are garbage contractors, and are not just hand in glove with contractors,” a former Mayor said.
Contractors staged a flash strike during the Ganesh festival in August, which officials said was “aimed at arm-twisting the civic body”.
On Friday, a group of pourakarmikas in Koramangala complained that contractors took their signatures on a blank paper, which was later misused to pad up an application asking for the continuation of the contract system and refusal of direct payment.
Councillors are also allegedly opposing mechanisation of sweeping of Bengaluru’s streets. The State government has approved and funded the purchase of 34 mechanical sweepers for the city under the Nagarothana Scheme, of which nine have arrived. The BBMP council needs to approve the purchase of the remaining 25 sweepers, as it has to bear the operation and maintenance costs which would run up to ₹4.5 lakh per vehicle per month, which is only a fraction of what the civic body is shelling out in the current system.
However, the council has been deferring the approval.
“We are in support of biometric attendance as that will clean up the pourakarmika rolls of duplications. However, we remain cautious over mechanised sweeping and it must be implemented only on major roads such as ring road and flyovers. We must ensure there is no job loss,” said Vinay Sreenivasa, BBMP Guttige Pourakarmikara Sangha.
Is setting up SWM board the solution?
The State government has decided that the best way to solve the garbage crisis in the city is to eliminate contractors. But in a scenario where there is an overlap between councillors and contractors, is the solution to freeing solid waste management from the clutches of councillors the solution? Many solid waste management experts think so.
N.S. Ramakanth, member, SWM Expert Committee, BBMP, said the BBMP council had been the biggest stumbling block for most of the reforms in the sector. “Most of the reforms we suggest is either stuck or diluted at the Health Standing Committee level or in the council. We need to free this essential service from the clutches of councillors,” he said.
He advocated formation of a Bengaluru solid waste management board, along the lines of Bescom for power supply, BWSSB for water and seweage, and BMTC and BMRCL for public transport. “Solid waste management is an essential service like power or water supply, which should be completely depoliticised. Moreover, the garbage cess that the BBMP collects is only a meagre ₹75 crore to ₹80 crore, while the SWM bill is around ₹800 crore. The remaining money is routinely pumped in from the State government. Hence, there is no obligation to let the councillors interfere with the essential service for the citizens,” he argued. The proposal is not entirely new. However, it has been gathering dust with the State government for years now.
