The Hindu            06.11.2013

Call for ‘war against garbage’

Special Correspondent

Collector asks commissioners tovisit all wards twice a week

Collector Siddharth Jain on Tuesday called upon the municipal commissioners in West Godavari district to get ready for a ‘war against garbage’ in all the seven municipal towns and the Eluru Municipal Corporation (EMC). Speaking at a meeting with the municipal commissioners here, he said a campaign named war against garbage would be launched shortly with public participation to upkeep sanitary conditions in the civic towns. The pell-mell conditions mainly caused by dumping of garbage in public places were posing a serious threat to public health in most of the civic towns in the district, he said.

Mr. Jain instructed the municipal commissioners to go round the wards/divisions in their respective municipal areas at least twice in a week. The visits would help them have a direct rapport with the people and fee back on prevailing civic conditions, besides personal supervision over the functioning of sanitary workers, he said. The Collector wanted the personnel of the civic bodies to live up to the expectations of people in providing basic amenities such as drinking water, street lighting and roads.

Mr. Jain said availability of compost yards in all the towns was a mandatory. He promised to look into the proposals submitted by the authorities of the municipalities which did not have the compost yard facility yet. The municipal commissioners were expected to ensure that the garbage collected from the households reached the compost yard, he added.

The Collector said any lenient view on collection of property tax in the civic bodies would not be tolerated. He emphasised the need to plug the loopholes in assessment of property rates and shore up municipal revenues. He asked the municipal commissioners to submit to him the action taken reports on the measures initiated against evasion of property taxes on daily basis. Ravindrababu, Regional Joint Director, Department of Urban Development and Municipal Administration, and Sesha Reddy, Project Director, Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) spoke.

The Hindu            06.11.2013

BBMP to empanel vendors to collect and process waste in Bangalore

Soon, you will be able to just make a call and get someone to collect waste from your house. This is what the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) hopes to achieve by having in place vendor empanelment.

According to senior BBMP officials, the civic body will have several vendors empanelled (recognised), who will offer solutions to citizens with regard to disposal of various kinds of waste.

The official explained that some kinds of waste, such as construction debris and waste leftover after a function or party, are a burden for the civic body.

“There may be some kinds of waste that can be recycled instead of just being dumped at a landfill. The citizens now have a chance of ensuring this does not happen by contacting vendors, who will ensure that the waste is processed properly,” the official added.

However, these services come at a price. The citizens will have to pay the vendors to pick up the waste.

This is touted as being a “win-win” proposition for both citizens and the civic body. BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan said that while the BBMP will not be burdened with the waste that can be processed effectively, the citizens can be rest assured that the waste does not end up at the landfill.

“All the vendors who have been empanelled will be listed. Citizens who wish to avail themselves of their services have to call the listed number. With more vendors empanelled, there will be competition amongst them and they will be forced to offer their services at competitive rates,” he added.

The BBMP, he said, will soon issue the expression of interest for the processing of various wastes-dry, wet, plastics, metals, construction debris and e-waste.

“The manpower and machinery that the vendor has will be checked before he is empanelled. Once empanelled, their performance will be reviewed on an annual basis,” he said.

Waste expert N.S. Ramakanth averred that the proposal is likely to benefit bulk waste generators more than individual homes. Stating that this system can be implemented after a thorough study, he added that the BBMP will specify sanitised landfills for disposal of rejects.

“While some apartment complexes are processing wet and dry waste, they do not know what to do with the rejects or inert waste. Having this system in place is a solution to that problem,” he added.