Bengaluru: The excellent climate, work opportunities and quality of education has turned Bengaluru into a hotspot for professionals from across the country. This economic boom and constant influx of people into Bengaluru has turned the city into a massive waste generator. Trees are being cut down by the dozen to concretize the city.
The Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) advocacy group has unleashed a slew of measures to help the city cope and ensure the government does what is required.
The garbage crisis has been a problem plaguing the city. B.PAC’s relentless advocacy efforts, innovative programs, and initiatives by its civic leaders, has kept the ball rolling on waste management. B.PAC launched two separate programs to manage the solid waste at ward level and by bulk generators.
According to Sushma Mahabala, member of B.PAC, “We have a slew of initiatives for garbage disposal and waste management at the ward level. We train 2 batches of civic leaders per year who interact with political leadership and link with them to ensure projects get going.”
Stressing that the city was having massive problems managing waste, Sushma said, “Waste management is a core programme of B.PAC.” She said that B.PAC was concentrating on ten wards for waste management programmes.
Says Mr. Subbaiah, of No. 19 ward, Sanjaynagar, “Overall level of garbage disposal methods have improved. We have introduced segregation of garbage and also tied up with the Satyagraha Initiative to get things done. We are looking at ward level maintenance.”
Adding that their initiatives had borne fruit and that things had improved, Mr. Subbaiah said, “We have mapped all the streets and got the numbers of all the pourakarmika supervisors in the ward, so people could tell them if their particular street had not been swept that day.”
Adding that they were also building a sense of community, Mr. Subbaiah said, “On Oct 2nd we organized a gala day for the pourakarmikas. We arranged games for the pourakarmikas and made them feel like a part of the community.” Mr. Subbaiah signed off by adding that cleanliness had improved in the locality and there was a 40% to 60% change in the way things work in the ward.
