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Solid Waste Management

Municipal council to launch cleanliness drive

Friday, 15 March 2013 11:29 administrator
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The Hindu                      15.03.2013

Municipal council to launch cleanliness drive

Staff Correspondent 

‘Those throwing garbage on roads will be fined’

M. Kurmarao, Commissioner of the City Municipal Council (CMC), has said that steps will be taken to keep the city clean and green by adopting a proper waste management system. Steps will be taken to ensure that all business establishments obtain licences, he said.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Thursday, Mr. Kurmarao said that as per the directions of the court and the government, manual scavenging had been banned and officers had been instructed to ensure that it did not take place. The municipal council had purchased equipment for the purpose and the public could make use of it by paying a fee, he said.

As dumping of waste material, including plastic bags, in public places was on the rise, arrangements had been made to collect garbage from all localities and people should utilise the facility. “The municipal council will impose a fine on those who throw garbage on roads,” he warned.

A large number of the 3,500 shops and small industries in the city limits had not yet obtained permission from the municipal council. Many others had not renewed their licences.

Deadline

It had been decided to initiate action against such shop and industry owners if they failed to obtain clearance from the municipal council within a fortnight, he said.

A ban on the use plastic bags of less than 40 microns was already in place. “Officers have been instructed to initiate action against those selling such plastic bags,” he said.

As Chitradurga could be developed into a major tourist destination, every citizen should cooperate with the officials in keeping the city clean and green. Shopkeepers should ensure that footpaths were free of encroachment, he said. There were plans to form separate committees of citizens in all wards to ensure cleanliness.

They would also be required to ensure quality of work wherever new schemes had been taken up, he said.

Mahantesh, manager of the municipal council, and engineers Chidanand Reddy and Wasim were present.

 

Civic body drafts rules governing functioning of ward committees

Friday, 15 March 2013 11:26 administrator
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The Hindu                      15.03.2013

Civic body drafts rules governing functioning of ward committees

CIVIC DUTY:The ward committees are mandated, among other things, to monitor garbage clearance in the locality.— FILE PHOTO: k. murali kumar
CIVIC DUTY:The ward committees are mandated, among other things, to monitor garbage clearance in the locality.— FILE PHOTO: k. murali kumar.

Close on the heels of the High Court of Karnataka fixing responsibility of monitoring garbage clearance on Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and ward committees, the civic body has drafted rules governing the functioning of the committees.

The draft rules are likely to be tabled before the BBMP council’s subject meeting scheduled for Saturday. The draft notification of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Ward Committee and Area Sabha) Rules 2012 has already been published by the Department of Urban Development. Once approved by the BBMP council, it will be official once the government issues a gazette notification.

The mandate

The rules basically govern the functioning of the committee, such as holding special meetings in case of emergency, preparation of agenda for the regular meetings. The committee will be responsible for not just solid waste management, but will also have to submit waste development scheme for allotment of funds and ensure proper utilisation of funds allotted. Other than these, the committee will also have to monitor maintenance of streetlights, parks, open spaces, green spaces, and approve the list of beneficiaries for welfare schemes, besides ensuring the timely collection of taxes, fees and other sums due to the corporation.

Monthly meets

The rules clearly mandate the ward committees to meet every month. The minutes of the meeting should be sent to the BBMP council, while the secretary appointed by the BBMP Commissioner will be responsible to carry out all resolutions of the ward committee.

According to highly placed sources in the BBMP, though the government has issued the draft notification on the “rules”, the subject being tabled in the council read as “byelaws/ rules”. The source asked: “How can rules be tabled as byelaws? Byelaws are different, as they apply to procedures for approving a plan, licence and levying a penalty etc. These just deal with the functioning and transaction of business. Hence, these cannot be called byelaws.”

The source said that the draft rules were just a “re-copy of the rules that existed in 1995, with some minor changes.” The draft notification has also repealed the earlier rules since the number of wards had increased, the source added.

 

4 zones in city for better waste management

Friday, 15 March 2013 05:47 administrator
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The New Indian Express                 14.03.2013

4 zones in city for better waste management

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to privatise  sanitation work in 13 more wards from this year under a seven-year contract.

The BMC’s long-awaited proposal to divide the City into four zones for better management of solid waste has been completed and the zones will be called packages. Package I will comprise 12 wards, package II and IV will have 4 wards and package III 13 wards.  From this year, the BMC will have seven wards under it.

The 53 wards in the City produce 340  tonnes municipal solid waste (MSW) every day. For managing such a huge amount of solid waste, better management mechanism has to be put in place. As per the tender, every package will have to be managed by the contractors separately. “We will not put complete City under one zone as then we will not have any back-up if the main system fails,” said BMC Commissioner Sanjib Mishra.

He added that BMC will prefer to hire separate contractors for different zones so that they have different options for the sanitation system. One contractor can bid for more than one package, but it is mandatory that the packages are managed differently. Mishra said this is the format applied in bigger cities and metros.

In order to attract more bidders for the project, the annual turnover requirement for the bidders has been kept at `4 crore. The complete project cost has been estimated at `30 crore per year.  The process of tendering is expected to be completed by August. The current sanitation work in  private wards are being done under an extended tender whose tenure will be over in April.

 
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