Waste management council will only empower mafia: AAP

The government has effectively abdicated its administrative responsibility and handed over the reins to the garbage mafia by setting up an autonomous waste management council, the AAP has said.

Aam Aadmi Party’s Shanthala Dhamle said garbage management has an annual budget of Rs 1,200 crore and has become a fertile ground for the mafia.

She said the move will only make the BBMP weaker as it loses control over a key issue. "Water supply, asset management, schools, hospital management and many other duties have been taken away from the BBMP," she said, adding that the Palike will be reduced to a grievance cell.

The AAP also said the autonomous council will end people’s right to question, while their elected representatives washed their hands of the sanitisation responsibility and become hand-in-glove with the mafia.

Recently, the government has sought the BBMP’s opinion on setting up a separate agency to oversee waste processing.