The Hindu       27.03.2017 

BBMP soon to be armed with data to clear illegal dump yards

Report on such spots to be submitted in a fortnight

How many illegal dump yards are there in the city? Which areas are susceptible to the furtive dumping of garbage by trucks in the night?

While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) remains clueless currently to the questions, in a fortnight or so, technology and persistent research may provide them the answers.

Researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) were roped in by the BBMP in 2010 after facing the heat in the High Court during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition on illegal garbage dumping in the city.

Using a combination of volunteers and satellite imagery, the team — H.N. Chanakya and T.V. Ramachandra from Energy and Wetlands Research Group, IISc. and researcher Shwetmala K. — had mapped illegal dump yards in the city. A staggering 696 dump yards were found — 303 in core areas and 393 in outer areas.

“Using this modelling, we are able to find out factors that make an area or site susceptible to illegal dumping. We will submit this to the BBMP in 15 days or so,” said Dr. Shwetmala. Earlier studies published by the group show that most of these dump yards come within 1.5 km from national highways or major roads, and particularly along the routes taken by garbage trucks towards the processing site.

‘Inefficient system’

Mr. Ramachandra said that with remote sensing satellite imagery being available nearly once a month, a map of the city’s illegal dump yards could be found through an accuracy of up to 2 m. “The civic body has not shown interest because of the prevalent inefficiencies in the system that allow for the garbage mafia to thrive,” he said.

Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner (Solid Waste Management), BBMP, said that while illegal dump yards were being cleared based on tip-offs by local people, it was a continuous process as these yards continued to pop up.

“Remote sensing data of dump yards in the city today can form the base and a periodic monitoring of the area for new dump yards would be a shot in the arm for enforcement to clear such spots. Satellite imagery can also form acceptable evidence of the crime,” he said.

However, for the civic body, it is the dumping of construction and demolition debris that poses a greater challenge, particularly in areas such as Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli and Kanakapura where a large plots are being rented out only for dumping.

The Hindu        27.03.2017  

Soon, your property will have a 10-digit geo-referenced number

It will replace the existing PIDs; it can effectively act as your address too

By this year-end, your property will have a 10-digit unique number. This unique number, which will be geo-referenced with the latitude and longitude information of the property, can effectively act as your address too. This number will replace your existing Property Identification (PID) number, which is not geo-referenced.

The civic body will start issuing these unique numbers soon after its GIS-enabled Property Tax Information System is mounted on the Bhuvan platform of Indian Space Research Organisation, work on which will begin from April 1, said M.K. Gunashekhar, chairman, standing committee on taxation and finance, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. The BBMP’s budget had a mention of the project.

Unscientific numbering

The PID system is in a mess owing to unscientific numbering being followed, said a senior BBMP official. The PID system includes the ward number, street number and door number of the property, all of which can often change. Ward delimitation exercise will render all existing PIDs erroneous, leading to issuing of new PIDs.

There are already two sets of PIDs — those issued before and after 2008, when the BBMP was formed. Moreover, the PID database is unlinked to the GIS database, khata, plan sanction, Bescom or BWSSB databases.

Assigning new numbers was recommended by the BBMP Restructuring Committee. The 10-digit system will give scope for assigning numbers to 100 lakh properties, a far cry from today’s estimated 25 lakh properties in the city.

“In Singapore, the geo-referenced unique property number acts as your address. For instance, you can provide the number of your destination to a cab driver who will track it on the map. The unique number can enable this in Bengaluru too,” said V. Ravichandar, member of the committee.

The 10-digit system will be error-proof and the system would not accept a wrong PID which may lead to tax payment to another account. The 10th digit will be derived through an algorithm applied on the first nine digits. Thus a wrong number in the 10th digit, will immediately flag an error, sources said.

Tax compliance

A geo-referenced PID that is integrated with other datasets of the properties such as ownership and encumbarance documents, khata, plan approval, tax receipts, utility services, is expected to lead to increased tax compliance in the city, said Mr. Ravichandar.

The recent GIS mapping has recognised around 19 lakh properties, of which only 16 lakh to 17 lakh properties have been in the tax net, indicating that the city has not been leveraging its potential tax base.

“Technology will help us cross-verify self-assessment by property owners and detect under-reporting,” Mr. Gunashekhar said.