Waste management policy fine, but where is enforcement?

Interview

Leaping from crisis to crisis, the city’s solid waste management (SWM) system has been a predictable story of hits and misses. But through the years, N S Ramakanth has stood as a tireless waste warrior, leading campaigns and collaborating with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to devise strategies and push for enforcement.

In an interaction with DH, he dives deep into the challenges ahead. Excerpts:

The recently approved new SWM policy sets multiple deadlines for 100% waste segregation at source, door-to-door collection, and more. Are these achievable?

Our government is famous for formulating policies and bye-laws. But enforcement is almost nil. That is why we are suffering. We, citizen volunteers, are trying our best to help the BBMP, but zonal commissioners are not responding at all. Lower-level officers are not following what the commissioner says.

Segregation at source has been a much-talked-about strategy. Why has it failed so far?

The waste collection should be efficient. They clean the black spots but don’t catch the violators. Bulk generators dumping garbage and creating black spots should be heavily penalised. Otherwise, this will not work at all.

You have been active in the SWM field for over 12 years, strategising and campaigning through the SWM Round Table. Your thoughts.

To enforce the policy and bye-laws, a system of inspection and penalty should be devised. I have inspected over 100 wards, urging junior inspectors to penalise violators. But they say the fines are not paid.

The traffic police mercilessly collect around Rs 100 crore in penalty annually. Why can’t the BBMP do the same? I even suggested that the penalty be clubbed with the property tax.

Why has door-to-door collection remained largely compromised?

We had ensured many conditions in the tender that mixed waste should not be collected. The problem arises when the uncollected waste is just dumped. Link workers should identify and collate the data of such violators.

I had also suggested that the autorickshaw drivers paste stickers on houses that do not deliver the waste. When the inspectors go on rounds, such houses can be identified and action taken.

The main problem is the joint commissioners are not levying penalties. The JCs and superintending engineers are authorised to levy the fine. The court has very clearly said this. These officials always depend on junior health inspectors, who have their own drawbacks. Most are on contract, and unpaid for months.

How serious is the waste-burning problem in Bengaluru?

Waste burning is mainly dry leaves. In HSR Layout, all leaves are composted in beautiful cement tanks. Not a single leaf goes out. In Koramangala, volunteers have taken over the streets and trained the pourakarmikas to do the composting.

Leaves should not go out of the ward, as former BBMP Commissioner Siddhaiah had ordered once. Leaf-composting can be done wherever there is space on the street sides.

Can innovative strategies be devised to ensure that bulk generators participate actively in SWM?

Legislations are passed to ensure that the bulk generators compost waste on their premises. For the last six years, I have been urging to give them some incentives such as a 50% cess waiver.

They argue that BBMP collects waste from individual houses but wants bulk generators to compost, although both pay taxes. You can always convince them if you give a cess waiver. For a 500-apartment complex, a cess waiver is a huge amount. They can always invest in a composter.

In Covid times, disposal of used masks with mixed waste has become a hazard.

Top BBMP officials had announced that the Palike had signed a contract with five medical waste dealers to collect segregated Covid waste and take it for incineration.

Unfortunately, this rule has not got down to the system. Waste collectors are not aware.

Citizens were really worried and we had asked them to avoid using disposable masks as much as possible. There is a change, but it seems too late.