Corporators took officials to task for inviting separate tenders to collect wet and dry waste.
Raising the issue in the BBMP council meeting on Tuesday, Padmanabha Reddy, the Opposition party leader said: “The issue of calling for a separate tender was never discussed in the council hall. Also, there is no clarity on what will happen to the dry waste collection. People will protest if the dry waste is not collected,” said Reddy.
Manjunath Raju, BJP corporator from Kadu Malleshwara ward said: “The officials are hiding facts from us. The people think that we (corporators) are responsible for all the corruption. But no one will know about the corrupt officials.”
Raju alleged that the ratio of distribution of compactors and auto tippers were not in sync with the population.
“For instance, Chickpete ward with 8,147 population has been allotted 52 auto tippers and five compactors. However, for Mathikere ward, which has more than 9,000 people, there are only 14 auto tippers and one compactor. How does this ratio work?” questioned Raju.
Randeep D, additional commissioner, (admin), BBMP, clarified that the distribution of auto tippers and compactors is based on the ward’s population. “The BBMP has a historical data on waste generation across the city. The vehicles have been distributed based on the time and motion study, where it assesses solid waste management every 750 houses,” he said.
The BJP corporators also questioned the duration of the tender period. “The duration of the tender is 12 months. Who would take up such a big project for only one year? Was the term finalised after some deals? they asked.
To improve separation
The National Green Tribunal Act and the Supreme Court have penalised us for dumping mixed waste. Separate tenders are invited to improve segregation levels, said BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad.
“At one point, we had achieved 53% of segregation at source. Without separate tenders, it is difficult to ensure this. We have identified close to 8,000 ragpickers to collect dry waste. Our city generates close to 6,000 tonnes of waste daily,” he said.
| Condolences Corporators, including the mayor, expressed condolences over the passing of Siddaganga seer Shivakumara Swamiji and former defence minister George Fernandes who died on Tuesday. A two-minute silence was observed during the meeting in memory of the leaders. Council members felt that the Siddaganga seer must be given Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honour. Volunteers from Citizens of Bengaluru met the mayor and opposition leaders at the council hall to brief them on ward committees and thank them. During the meeting, corporators pointed at an error in the spelling in Kannada on a photo frame of the Siddaganga seer at the BBMP office. The mistake was later rectified. |