Bengaluru: NGOs demand norms for engineers, waste segregation on war footing
BENGALURU: In a bid to rope in NGOs for better solid waste management in the city, BBMP administrator T.M. Vijaya Bhaskar and BBMP commissioner G. Kumar Naik held an interaction with various civil society organisations on Thursday. Among many suggestions during the meet, some emphasized the need to enforce stringent contract rules. The representatives of these organisations also suggested that penalising households, private layouts, apartments and institutions for not segregating waste should be undertaken on a war footing.
Most of them present at the meeting agreed that the cleanliness drive organised by the BBMP in every Assembly constituency was meaningless. Instead, norms for contractors and BBMP engineers should be strictly enforced to ensure that they cleaned up, else got penalized, they said.
Further, the BBMP officials agreed to upload the existing contracts relating to solid waste management (SWM) rules online within a day or two and said that the draft of the new contracts would also be shared online for comments. Mr Naik highlighted that BBMP would ensure decentralised waste management, including composting organic waste in local areas, and recycling of waste would be encouraged.
“The CM’s decision that Bengaluru would move towards a landfill-free city is a significant and unprecedented step for any city in India. Hence, we would take concerted effort to decentralise waste management,” he said. The officials agreed to engage those who were enlisted as Ward Committee members and ‘Suchi Mitras’ in order to monitor SWM operations in every neighbourhood.
Responding to various suggestions of the representatives, Mr Bhaskar agreed that penalising households, private layouts, apartments and institutions for not segregating waste or dumping it on roadsides should be undertaken on a war footing. Penal provisions would be enforced, he said, as in the case of traffic violations.
The interaction concluded with the BBMP officials agreeing to conduct more such meetings in every zone and ward. They even invited citizens to organise such meetings.
