Harvard Uni to fund projects to tackle city's garbage

After numerous MoUs with companies for setting up processing units and new rules for solid waste management, now, the city has received an offer from the Harvard University to tackle the garbage menace.

With efforts from senior IAS officer P Manivannan, through his fellowship at Harvard University, USD 30,000 has been granted for a solid waste management project for the city. A group of 40 active citizens, part of the project, will come up with a pilot project to utilise the funds to curb the mounting garbage problem.

Manivannan refused to disclose details about the grant, saying it was too early to speak about it. The senior IAS officer, who is in the US at the moment, said the university has vacations till September 4 and once it reopens, he will be in a better position to talk about it.

Sridhar Pabbisetty, an activist, and G R Chandran, e-governance consultant, are part of the citizen group that would come up with a project to ensure that the funds are efficiently used.

According to Pabbisetty, Bengaluru has been facing issues with garbage for some time, and despite numerous plans and methods, it has not been implemented. "Mysuru has successfully installed GPS in all their garbage trucks, but here it has not been effectively implemented. We need to address the whole indiscipline in the system," he added.

Similarly, Chandran said the project will have to be approved by the university before the grants start rolling out. A sustainable project has to be in place to ensure it is not destabilised once the funds are exhausted.