Segregate waste from today, or pay Rs 100 fine

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will collect only waste segregated at source from households, starting Wednesday. However, the civic body is poorly prepared to kick-start the drive that was planned two months ago. Those who do not segregate waste will be penalised. Initially, the penalty would be Rs 100, which can be increased to Rs 500 if the household repeats the violation. However, there is no provision for penalty on pourakarmikas who mix the segregated waste.

Ward-level engineers, pourakarmikas and the garbage contractors were to be educated on collecting only segregated waste. The pour-akarmikas were supposed to have separate bins in their carts for wet, dry and sanitary waste. However, none of these measures was put in place across the BBMP limits till Tuesday. Seena, who supervises a group of pourakarmikas in Bengaluru South region, said he has not received any training on segregation of waste at source. Also, pourakarmikas have not got separate bins to collect segregated waste, he said.

N S Ravi, president, Bharathi Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA), said no BBMP engineer ever met him regarding waste segregation. “I want my city to be clean and implement the drive with the help of the Palike. However, no one has approached me or any of our office-bearers,” said Ravi.

Mahalakshmi Parthasarathi, general secretary, Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF), a consortium of about 150 RWAs, said the Palike has neither conducted any education programme nor distributed handbills or organised street plays to create awareness on waste segregation at source. “Though we are the biggest consortium of RWAs, no one has approached us,” she said.

Many students to whom  DH spoke, said no one from the BBMP came to their schools and colleges to educate them on waste segregation. When contacted, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad said that for the last 10 days, the Palike officials have been meeting the RWAs and seeking their help. Pourakarmikas will carry loudspeakers in their auto-trolleys from Wednesday and announce that they will collect only segregated waste, he added.

The Palike had planned on December 1, 2016 to make segregation of waste mandatory from February 1 and decided to start a mega awareness drive from December 15, 2016. For the success of the drive, the Palike had planned to visit schools and colleges to educate students on the significance of waste segregation. It had also intended to distribute handbills, advertise in media and organise street plays.