BBMP rolls out all-new approach to keep Bengaluru clean

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has worked out an all-new approach to streamline the solid waste management in the city. It will launch ‘Swachhata Utsava’ (cleanliness festival), a drive for micro-management of waste, on Sunday to coincide with Gandhi Jayanti (October 2).

Clusters of 750 houses each will be formed under the new arrangement. Every cluster will be provided with a three-wheeler tipper and an auto-rickshaw driver for door-to-door collection of waste. There will be a pourakarmika (municipal worker) at every half a kilometre.

The focus this time will be on segregation of waste at source and preventing people from littering in public places. There will be penalty of up to Rs 500 for littering waste in public places. Rallies by schoolchildren, street plays and other methods will be part of the drive to create awareness on cleanliness and segregation of waste.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Mayor G Padmavathi and BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said the new system would bring a major reform in the way the SWM was handled. It also aims at increasing public participation in waste management. “We are going to use mechanical sweeping machines to clean main roads besides installing 9,000 litter bins at prominent places,” the mayor said.

The BBMP has also entered into an agreement with Iskcon to provide midday meals to pourakarmikas at Rs 20 per head. “The meal will be delivered at 10.30 every morning,” she added.

The new system intends to tame wayward garbage contractors with a provision for hefty penalty if they do not fall in line. Prasad said, “The contractors’s common grouse that their dues are not paid on time will be addressed. But it’s not just the contractors who keep Bengaluru clean. Our officials with the help of 3,271 pourakarmikas are doing this job. We intend to employ 4,000 more pourakarmikas. We have 70 compactors and will hire them on contract.”

Besides, the BBMP has written to the railways asking for land for segregating mixed waste.
DH News Service