The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities will
conduct a  door-to-door survey to ascertain the status of waste
segregation in households, from Thursday.

The BBMP, which made
waste segregation at source mandatory last October, is yet to enforce
it. The state Cabinet approved the proposal to include penalty clause in
March 2013, and the same will be enforced after completing necessary
administrative formalities. With dry waste collection centres ready at
all wards by June end, the BBMP is planning to enforce it effectively.

The
door-to-door survey will start at BBMP south zone which consists of 44
wards. Speaking to Express, BBMP Additional Commissioner (South) Dr K V
Thrilok Chandra said the Palike is planning to have 31 zero garbage
wards, which means no waste from here will go to landfills. Of the 31
wards, five are in the south zone and the project is expected to be
launched soon. “Before the project starts, we want to know the ground
reality of segregation at source and that is why the survey,” he said.

Explaining
further, Chandra said pourakarmikas who go to houses to collect waste
every day will update the BBMP health inspectors or supervisors in the
wards on the nature of waste collection from each house. These officials
will be given a prescribed format to feed the data. “There will be
columns to write serial number, property number and address, along with
phone number, segregated waste or unsegregated waste and also a column
to write remarks. The officials not just feed these data, they will also
randomly visit those houses to cross-check,” he said. However, this
initiative will be limited to individual houses. “We will speak to
members of apartment resident associations and seek their help in
knowing the status of segregation at their complexes,” he added.

This
initiative is expected to help the BBMP in many ways. “We will know
where we need to focus. If people in certain areas are already
segregating waste, there will be no need for us to inform them again. It
will save our time too,” he said.

‘Waste Gets Mixed’

On the
other hand, residents fear that even though they segregate waste, it
will be mixed during transportation. Mukunda Rao, member, Jayanagar 5th
Block Residents’ Welfare Association said, “Though this initiative gives
us an idea on the status of segregation, the BBMP must ensure that
segregated waste remains segregated in trucks. Waste gets mixed in many
areas as both wet and dry waste is collected every day. Instead of this,
they can collect dry waste once or twice a week.”