The New Indian Express              22.05.2013

BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah beating drums at the launch of a 10-day awareness programme on segregation of waste at source on Tuesday | Nagaraja Gadekal

In an attempt aimed at reducing the burden on landfills on the outskirts of the city, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will soon stop sending waste from 31 of its 198 wards.

BBMP has identified seven wards each from the core zones (South, West and East) and two each from newly-added zones (Bommanahalli, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Yelahanka, Mahadevapura and Dasarahalli).

BBMP Additional Commissioner (South) Dr K V Thrilok Chandra said they had identified wards where there were dry waste centres (DWC) and segregation at source was successful to a larger extent.

“We will conduct massive awareness programmes on segregation of waste at source. Our officials will do door-to-door monitoring,” he said. The awareness programme is expected to be launched soon. Depending on the response, it will be extended to other wards.

Of 198 wards, BBMP has DWCs in 70 wards. The remaining are under construction, which is scheduled to be ready by this month-end.

“BBMP was supposed to construct DWCs in all the wards by April-end. However, Commissioner Siddaiah requested the High Court to extend the deadline till May as officials were busy with election duty. All the DWCs will be ready by this month-end,” an official said.

However, in many places, the public opposed setting up of such centres near their houses, including in parks.

A press release from the BBMP said once all the DWCs were functional, the quantity of garbage sent to landfills will be reduced greatly.  “If people starts segregating waste, dry waste can be sent directly to DWCs, thus reducing the quantity of waste to some extent.”

Street Plays to Create Awareness

The release further said that BBMP will conduct a 10-day awareness programme through street plays from Tuesday. 

There are 10 teams consisting of 11 artistes each. These troupes will perform street plays on segregation of waste at source, in malls, parks and other public places, the release said.

On Tuesday, the BBMP commissioner launched a similar awareness programme in Majestic area where folk artistes performed dollu kunitha and kamsale to draw public attention.

Also, BBMP is taking the help of BMTC to display advertisements on segregation of waste on the buses.

The Hindu              22.05.2013

Panel set up to locate land for dumping sites

Delhi High Court to take up the matter for further hearing on July 5.

Pulling up the Delhi Development Authority for not meeting the Supreme Court deadline for making available landfill sites within three months of the order to the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday formed a multi-member committee for identifying land and transferring them to the civic bodies for new garbage dumping sites.

The committee will be headed by the Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department of the Delhi Government, and the DDA Vice-Chairman, a representative of the Land and Building Department of the Delhi Government and the three Municipal Commissioners will be its members.

The Court will take up the matter for further hearing on July 5.

The three municipal corporations for the moment have demanded 600 acres for new garbage dumping sites. Counsel for the three municipal bodies, Sumeet Pushkarna, submitted before the Court that as of now around 50 per cent of the garbage generated in the Capital every day was being processed.

He further submitted that there will come a time when the civic bodies would not require very many landfill sites for dumping garbage as there were plans to send most of the garbage to processing plants. He said only the inert garbage would be dumped in landfill sites close to densely populated areas.

According to Mr. Pushkarna, the DDA has so far made available only 150 acres to the civic bodies for new landfill sites while the Delhi Master Plan-2021 provides for 1,500 acres for it.

The Supreme Court had in 2010 directed the DDA to make land available to the local bodies within three months so that they could shift dumping of garbage from the existing saturated landfill sites.

In March this year, the civic bodies had informed the Court that the situation had reached such a point that with each passing day they were finding it increasingly difficult to operate the present landfill sites. However, they said, since there was no other option, they had been forced to continue to use these sites.

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has already banned dumping of garbage at three of the four existing dumping sites. But the three municipal bodies continue to dump garbage at the Bhalaswa, Ghazipur, Okhla and Narela-Bawana sites.