Bengaluru's garbage confusion: When city’s waste plan keeps shifting

Who should pick waste from Bengaluru homes? With so many threads ending up tangled, the web of confusion is only getting worse.

Bengaluru: An order issued by the chief commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) withdrawing the task of primary waste collection from the Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) sparked debate about whether the move is correct and whether it will help. 

The order said the responsibility of primary waste collection and transportation would be entrusted to zonal commissioners, and it would be handed over to the five new municipalities to be formed under the Greater Bengaluru Authority later. BSWML would handle only the processing and disposal part, along with infrastructure development.

Currently, the BBMP handles street sweeping and toilet maintenance, which fall under the health and sanitation division of the BBMP. BSWML, a separate body formed to manage the city’s waste, handles primary and secondary transportation, processes waste, and maintains the infrastructure.

The supposed reason behind the move was the BBMP ranking 36th among the 40 cities above 10 lakh population in the Swachh Sarvekshan 2024. The Swachh ranking measures the visible filth on the streets. It goes down when garbage is visible on the ground, there is visible waste on the streets, and public facilities are unhygienic. It also looks into the processing systems the city has. 

The ranking is based on eight parameters, which the BBMP and the BSWML handle.

Door-to-door collection of waste: BSWML is responsible for this, but in some areas with narrow roads, BBMP’s street sweepers use pushcarts to collect door-to-door waste.

Source segregation: Citizens have been asked to segregate waste at home, and the BSWML is directly responsible for collecting this.

Waste processing: BSWML is responsible for this.

Cleanliness of residential and market areas: BBMP, through the street sweeping system, handles this part.

Cleanliness of water bodies: BBMP’s lake division, zonal, and ward officials are responsible for this. Sometimes, when there is no sewage network, sewage goes into lakes, contributing to unhygienic lakes.

Cleanliness of public toilets: BBMP handles public toilets and is responsible for this.

Remediation of dumpsites: BBMP was handling this, but henceforth it would be BSWML.

Ram Prasad V, an active citizen who has worked closely with the BBMP on waste-related issues, says that the move is correct, only the primary collection and transportation will go back to the BBMP zonal divisions and in future, the new corporations. BSWML will handle the larger part of the equation, which is how it should be, he says.

“This kind of looks like equal division of responsibilities. However, if the garbage cess and user fee collected go to BBMP, how will the BSWML become self-sufficient? What part of this goes to BSWML needs to be made clear,” he adds. 

He sees a bigger problem. “If the garbage user fee is a service fee, BBMP becomes the primary service provider of door-to-door collection. Can we take BBMP to the consumer court if there are deficiencies in the system?” he asks.

He emphasises that the BSMWL should ensure that the money from selling compost or producing CNG, recycling, and all the money meant for extended producer responsibility (EPR) comes to them, helping them fill the funding gaps. 

“BSWML should start acting like a company and not as a quasi-government body. The employees should think like corporate employees, and there should be capacity and capability building of the staff and systems to ensure the BSWML performs the task professionally without any hiccups,” he says.

BSWML in action

“We are conducting inspections on mustering points every day and issuing notices to contractors and staff who do not follow the rules,” says the chief executive officer of BSWML, Karee Gowda, who took charge a week ago.

For example, in Chokkasandra ward, during an inspection done on August 21, 15 tipper auto drivers and helpers were found without gum shoes, and six drivers did not have licences. In another inspection done on August 22 in the Bapujinagar ward, only 10 tipper autos were found during the mustering time instead of the allotted 16 vehicles. 

A showcause notice issued by the BSWML says that the glasses of the vehicles and RFIDs were broken, and a few autos were found loaded with garbage during mustering - a process of taking attendance before the waste collection system starts working. Here also, many drivers were found operating without valid licences. The public address system was dysfunctional in many autos. 

Such notices have been issued to all the concerned contractors asking why action cannot be taken against them for the violations.

The BSWML has also issued a memo to all the contractors asking the auto tippers to be present at the mustering points by 5:30 am and finish the mustering task by 6:30 am. This has not gone well with the garbage contractors.

“Who wakes up at 6.30 to put out garbage? The regular collection time is after 7.30 am. People clean their houses and dispose of waste only after this. This will lead to yesterday’s waste getting collected today, leading to hygiene issues and rodent problems,” says S N Balasubramanian, president of BBMP Garbage Contractors Association.

But Karee Gowda clarifies. “The time band between 5.30 am and 6:30 am is used for mustering. Once that is over, the autos must go to blackspots and clear them off, and start door-to-door collection at 7.30 am. It fixes all the issues,” he explains.

Why does garbage go on the ground?

“My question is, who will handle the wet waste transfer points and DWCC? Will it be BBMP or BSWML? They have to figure these out,” says Ram Prasad. If this is not figured out, it will only lead to more garbage on the ground, he warns.

However, Balasubramanian says that the rules are not clear on clearing garbage on the ground in blackspots. “Street sweepers are not responsible for clearing these. We, the contractors, are also not responsible; we are supposed to handle only door-to-door collection. The terms are not clear enough. We still clear the blackspots,” he adds. 

He says the maintenance of marshals costs the BBMP Rs 30 crore. They are supposed to handle the garbage blackspots. “Why are there still blackspots? Money is being wasted,” he remarks.

He highlights the disparity in the plan to pay the auto tippers. The old price for an auto tipper, along with the driver and the helper, was Rs 73,000 per month. But in the new tender, where we will have to have new vehicles, the money is Rs 66,000 per month per vehicle.

Ram Prasad says that the BBMP waste collection microplan for autos had 750-800 houses per block, from which waste was to be collected in 8 hours of a shift, which is impossible to do in many wards because the autos stop working by 11-11.30 am. This means many homes will throw their garbage in dumping spots.

Balasubramian says that in some areas, tippers serve only 300-400 houses, because the data given while chalking out the microplan would have been wrong, or the collection is easier in the case of apartments. Therefore, the staff finishes the work by 11.30 am at the most, he adds.

“The data needs to be accurate; every auto should collect waste from the designated houses on the same day; the collection data should be tracked by means of RFIDs, technology should be made use of to fix accountability and fill gaps; if everything is streamlined, this is not difficult at all,” says Balasubramian.

BBMP zones taking over waste collection can streamline accountability. However, BBMP has a long history of bureaucratic inefficiencies. The lack of performance oversight can push the city back into deeper service gaps, be it BSWML or the BBMP.

While many are unhappy about the new order, sources say the order might be withdrawn soon, and responsibilities will come back to BSWML.