The Times of India            07.08.2013

BMC 'sweeps' garbage under carpet

BHUBANESWAR: Green city, clean city. Though Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) went an extra mile in spreading the message on giant posters with the image of a smiling Naveen Patnaik at different locations in the city, it is drawing flak for having failed to make any tangible effort to flush out garbage from roads.

Introduction of mechanized sweeping machines and launch of 'clean city campaign' and 'mobile governance' projects, which were aimed at addressing the waste woes of the capital, have come a cropper.

"Even as garbage continues to rob sheen of the city, the civic body boasts of making strides with 'progress through partnerships' in different fields. The BMC's whooping Rs 1.65 crore mobile governance project has turned out to be a white elephant," said Piyush Ranjan Rout, an urban planner.

Though the hi-tech project was launched about a year ago to keep an eye on 'truant' sanitation workers, heaps of garbage remain dumped at major places. A private firm was engaged to click photographs to keep track of workers, shirking their duties. The BMC's standing committee on public health and sanitation recently opposed the project and demanded that it be scrapped for alleged poor show.

The BMC authorities said the mobile governance system has proved its worth. "Cellphones are capturing real-time images of workers at garbage transfer units. It has improved the attendance of sweepers," BMC commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra said.

Citizens said instead of installing the expensive technology, BMC should expedite construction of the solid waste treatment plant at Bhuasuni, on the outskirts of the city. "The project has been hanging fire since long. Garbage is being dumped near Sainik School and other places illegally. There is no mechanism to segregate the waste," said Sidhharth Das, a city-based lawyer.

Mishra said the corporation would shortly float tenders for setting up the waste processing plant at an estimated cost of Rs 46 crore. "Once commissioned, we can produce refuse derived fuel out of waste," he said. The city generates 450 metric tonnes of waste every day.

All eyes are now on the BMC for effective utilization of Rs 45 crore, earmarked for sanitation in this year's budget. Last year, the allocation was Rs 26 crore and the civic body claimed that it had spent all the money. "We have divided 53 wards into four zones for better solid waste management. The extra funds will be used for transporting waste dumped at the transit yard near Sainik School to Bhuasuni and privatization of street sweeping," Mishra said. Out of the 60 wards, 53 are under private sanitation contractors which the BMC staff takes care of the rest seven.