Tackling trash: Kalyan Nagar RWA shows the way

Even before Bengaluru could sense that a ‘garbage bomb’ is ticking, the Kalyan Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association has showed the way on how waste can be tackled effectively. Kalyan Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association president C M Subbaiah proudly proclaims, “The BBMP’s new dictum on segregation of waste at source is not for us because we have been doing it sincerely for the past 19 years.”

Founded more than 25 years ago, the Residents’ Welfare Association was the first to establish Waste Management Committee in 1998. Subbaiah recalls, “Our locality was not under the erstwhile Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike  in 1998 when the Bangalore Development Authority, which formed our layout, started the Waste Management Committee as a pilot project with the assistance of the Norwegian government.” In 1995, the BMP started dumping waste at Mavallipura but no waste from Kalyan Nagar went to the landfill as it was disposed of locally.

The Residents’ Welfare
Association is in the process of introducing Provident Fund and Employees State Ins-urance scheme for its pourakarmikas. Every family living in Kalyan Nagar, comprising about 5,000 houses, segregates waste at source. Pourakarmikas are well-trained to collect only segregated waste and have separate bins for wet, dry and sanitary waste. “Our wet waste goes to manure and the dry one for processing,” says Subbaiah.