After four trips to Salem, Palike realises segregation is a waste

The BBMP has, for over an year now, been trying to promote segregation of waste at source. But the civic body’s efforts had not paid much dividends. The Palike can now go ahead with waste management measures, without deliberating much on getting citizens to separate trash before disposing it.

It is a major positive from the Salem trip of district incharge Minister Ramalinga Reddy and the Palike authorities. The team had been to the steel city to take lessons in handling garbage. The trash disposal technology in use in the Tamil Nadu city takes in mixed waste and that means Palike now does not have to brainstorm much on segregation.

Mayor B S Sathyanarayana, corporators, BBMP officials and journalists were part of the team of 150 that visited Salem on Wednesday.

Salem has 61 wards, but generates only 300 tonnes of waste daily, which is almost 13 times less than the trash that Bangalore generates. Hanjer Biotech Private Limited (HBPL), a Gujarat-based firm, has adopted a technology there to process mixed waste and convert it into compost, Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) and plastic ingots.

While the Tamil Nadu government buys the compost, the plastic industry buys the ingots. The boiler industry buys the RDF.

Sathyanarayana said, “We now have to decide whether to make segregation of waste at source mandatory or not. We will take a call on this shortly.” One wonders why the earlier three teams of the Palike that toured Salem failed to note that the technology used there did not require segregation of waste that citizens dispose of.

Four units

Ramalinga Reddy said the work order has been issued to HBPL, while certain clearances are pending with the government, which will be given soon.

Reddy said, “We need such plants in four different locations of Bangalore to convert waste into different products and reduce the amount of garbage going to the landfills.”

The HBPL executives told the delegation that they have been given 10 acres of land near Kengeri in Rajarajeshwari Nagar zone. The minister said the Palike has to identify boundaries of the proposed facility and build the compound wall. If that is done, the executives said, they will set up the unit in 10 months. The Rajarajeshwari Nagar facility will process at least 800 tonnes of waste every day.

Minister favours Palike bifurcation

Ramalinga Reddy has written a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the need to bifurcate the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, in view of administrative problems. He claimed that Siddaramaiah is open to the idea of bifurcating BBMP. After discussing the pros and cons, a suitable decision will be taken, said the minister.

Mayor Sathyanarayana too favoured the bifurcation or trifurcation of the BBMP, if that could provide better municipal administration to greater Bangalore.