BBMP yet to set up micro ward SWM

A year after the Karnataka High Court pulled up the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for poor Solid Waste Management (SWM) in the city, it is yet to set up the proposed micro plants in the city. The BBMP, along with the existing ward committees, had planned to start one SWM plant in each ward to treat 15 tonnes of garbage each day.

“The initiative which was to be implemented by now has not taken any shape yet. The BBMP SWM micro plant was to execute segregation-at-source and composting of waste,” said N S Ramakanth, member, SWM Expert Committee.

The decision to set them up in all the 198 wards of the city was taken after the court took it to task while hearing a ward committee petition on SWM. “According to the plan one auto tipper would collect segregated garbage from 750 houses in a ward and send it to the micro plant to process it. But so far the authorities have made no effort to set up these plants. The initiative is still pending in front of the BBMP council,” he added.

The action plan prepared by the BBMP mandated that the ward committees will be led by the council member, who is also the chairman of the particular ward committee. Members of the committee will monitor the SWM in that ward.

An official from BBMP said, “We are in the process of setting up SWM micro plants in all the wards. The council needs to clear the file.”