Bengaluru: The BBMP council meeting on Tuesday took a dramatic turn when opposition leader Padmanabha Reddy lashed out at the civic body over its tender process, calling the babus 'frauds'. Raising objections to separate tenders for the collection and disposal of wet and dry waste, several city councillors, Mr Reddy questioned the intentions of the civic body. At the BBMP council meeting on Tuesday, Kadu Malleswaram ward corporation Manjunath Raju even asked if the 12-month tender period was given by BBMP officials after they had been offered some deals.
Mr Reddy said the tender document for collection of wet and dry wastes separately had not been placed before the council or the standing committees for a detailed discussion. He pointed out that even though some of the features in the tender document are appreciable, he lamented not keeping the corporators in the loop and taking their suggestions into consideration.
In his reply, BBMP commissioner Mr Manjunath Prasad clarified that the tender document has been prepared to prevent further embarrassment from the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal for not taking adequate steps to prevent sending of mixed wastes to the landfills and quarries.
Mentioning that the percentage of segregation at source which was once at 53 percent have been dropping, Mr Prasad said "With the new tenders we aim to improve segregation as the contractors will have to collect only the wet wastes from the consumers. It will also prevent the mixing up of the segregated wastes, which is the case now."
Further, for the collection and processing of the wet wastes, nearly 8,000 rag pickers have been identified along with the NGOs, he replied.
