The Deccan Chronicle 10.11.2010
New garbage fee is all rubbish!Nov. 9: It would be almost funny if it wasn’t so outrageous. The BBMP which has left Bengalureans fuming at the garbage strewn around the city, is now thinking of levying a user fee on them in proportion to the amount of rubbish they generate in their homes and offices.
The civic fathers are apparently aping San Francisco in this matter. One wonders why they are not following that city’s example and making sure that Bengaluru is as clean as it is.
No Bengalurean will be happy to be taxed to fund the BBMP’s blatant inefficiency in garbage collection. The Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) have, not surprisingly, strongly opposed its move to introduce the user fee , seeing it as yet another way of fleecing the common man. “Why should the BBMP collect the user fee from the people when management of garbage is one of its primary functions? It cannot raise revenue this way,” objects chairman of the Citizen Action Forum (CAF) N. S. Mukunda.
If the BBMP wants to reduce the rubbish generated in the city why isn’t it popularising the concept of segregation of garbage at source and recycling of plastic and paper waste, which will automatically cut down the quantity of rubbish to be taken to the dumping yards, he wonders. Introduction of a user fee will give scope for harassment of people and an inspector raj, he warns, predicting that malls and residential apartments will be targeted by officials to make a quick buck.
Pointing out that the BBMP spends nearly Rs 150 crore annually on solid waste management, Mr Mukunda maintains it can save at least Rs 80 crore if it scientifically processes garbage. “The compost can be exported or used in BBMP parks and recycling of dry waste like paper, plastic and polythene may fetch it revenue as well," he argues.
Prof. Ashwin Mahesh of the Indian Institute of Management- Bengaluru says that if at all the user fee is introduced, it must be different for domestic and non- domestic sectors.
“The fee collected must be given to the local body where the dumping yard is located to fund welfare schemes,” he suggests. But Bengalureans can visualise this happening only when and if the BBMP pulls up its socks and shows it can be relied upon to keep the city clean and not leave it littered with heaps of garbage in its nooks and corners, as it is doing today , much to their despair and shame.
