Of the two major problems that the city is facing presently —
potholed roads and garbage — at least one is likely to be solved by
January, according to Bangalore Urban District in-charge Minister
Ramalinga Reddy.

During an interaction with reporters, Reddy
admitted that the garbage problem was slightly more difficult to solve,
but that Bangalore will be free of potholes by early next year.

The root of the garbage crisis, according to Reddy, was plastic.

“There’s
plastic everywhere and I believe that before we can make any
substantial change to the garbage policy, we need to ban plastic
completely. It is the plastic in the garbage that stops farmers from
taking the wet waste and using it as fertiliser. We should go back to
using carrybags that we used to carry with us to the local grocery
store,” he said.

Reddy said a major cause for the garbage problem
was the lackadaisical attitude of citizens. “Many of them just throw
garbage wherever they want, and often, these are educated people,” he
said. While segregation of waste at the source hasn’t quite taken off,
Reddy hopes that the Salem model of waste disposal will work for the
city as well. “We also heard that Pune had an effective system of
garbage disposal and there is a plan to visit Pune to understand the
model better,” he said.

BBMP Division

Reddy believes that
the division of BBMP will help solve the city’s problems. “I have
written to the Chief Minister requesting that a committee be set up. It
should consist of technocrats, former commissioners and other
experienced individuals who will look into how the city can be divided
and managed by at least two municipal corporations. I personally favour
at least three corporations, but it will be up to the panel to decide
this,” he said.

Funding for Sanitation Projects

The
government is in the process of writing a letter to the Irrigation
Department, requesting an additional 5 TMC of water for the city. “The
letter has been drafted and sent to our advocates. Although we are
allocated 19 TMC of water, we require another 5 TMC of water,” he said.

Reddy
also said the BWSSB, BBMP and BDA had been asked to send proposals
towards solving the sanitation problems in the city. “We will look for
international funding for these projects,” he said.

Petrol Bunks in Bus Depots

The
KSRTC and BMTC will rent out space in depots to oil companies in order
to set up petrol bunks, said Ramalinga Reddy. The decision comes in the
wake of the hike in prices of bulk diesel, following which state-run
transport corporations had begun purchasing fuel from private petrol
bunks in the city.

“We can consider giving these spaces without
charging any rent. Our buses will not have to go to private petrol bunks
to fill fuel.

Once this arrangement is in place, the public can also use the petrol bunks in our depots to fill fuel,” Reddy said.

Over
the next one year, Reddy said city bus services will be extended to all
the districts in the state. “At present, we have city buses in 12
districts. These will be extended to all the other districts,” he said.

He
said that both NEKRTC and NWKRTC were making profits of `23 lakh and `8
lakh, respectively. “We will further improve the efficiency of the
state-run transport corporations to increase the profit margin,” he
said.

To a question on the lack of bus stops and the inadequate
lighting in many bus stops, Reddy said the issue was being looked into.

“There
are many places where there are more than one bus stops and in other
areas, there is not even a single bus stop. I have written to the BBMP
Commissioner requesting him to hand over the construction of bus stops
to the BMTC,” he said.

The state government is also working on reducing the menace of private buses that ply through the city without required licence.

“Many
buses with only contract carriage permit, ply through the city
regularly. Many private operators do not have a stage carriage permit
either. We are taking action against such operators and have identified
about 8-10 districts where this is a big problem. We are working towards
improving the situation in these places,” he said.