Bengaluru: As garbage menace continues to affect the city, newly-appointed Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) Subodh Yadav, who took charge on Friday, stressed that immediate solution to lift garbage off the streets would be adopted, even if it was right or not. Excerpts from the interview:
What do you think are the major challenges for garbage management in Bengaluru?
The impact on solid waste management is not proportionate to the efforts taken by the BBMP to solve the garbage crisis. There’s a significant gap in the way garbage is being generated and treated. A tightened; monitoring set-up is the need of the hour.
But where do you think the BBMP has failed to achieve this?
Since it’s my first day, it may be too premature to comment on this. I have had elaborate meetings with the Mayor, Commissioner and BBMP officials. I have gathered a lot of information but it’s too early to conclude where others have failed.
The commissioner has declared that segregation at source is the ultimate solution for garbage menace. What extra measures will you adopt to fully implement this?
I have understood that at household level garbage is being segregated but at the end point mixed waste is reaching garbage processing plants despite BBMP’s measures to de-segregate garbage. Now, simultaneously both segregation at source and dumping of mixed waste can’t be possible if rules are being followed diligently. We need extended supervision to monitor this.
How do you plan to ensure there’s extended supervision?
There are many ways to achieve it and without the active involvement of residents at field level, there’s no way we can ensure garbage is
segregated at source. We need to do our homework on this.
Has garbage mafia come to your notice during the meetings?
There was no mention about the mafia nor did anything suggest that a mafia was controlling garbage in Bengaluru. However, if someone’s playing with the system, they have to be in confluence with the BBMP officials. Hence, a solid monitoring system which will also address these issues has to be put in place.
What are your immediate goals?
There are two things- to find an immediate solution to lift garbage off streets in Bengaluru- and to find a long term solution for the garbage crisis. The ultimate goal is to find a sustainable, long-term solution but in that bid, we cannot let garbage rot on the streets. I may have taken charge in the wrong time, but my goal is to find an immediate solution. It may not be fully scientific at the moment but garbage will be removed from Bengaluru’s streets.
