Report on CIVIC's public consultation on Municipal SWM

The following are the links to the articles on the fresh garbage tender of BBMP and CIVIC's public consultation held on it (check this) which have appeared in "Citizen Matters":
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/2860-garbage-collection-contract
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/2861-improve-garbage-collection-then-ask-for-cess

I had attended the meeting. It was chaired by the redoubtable Ms Almitra Patel (Member - Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management). The other participants were Mr Manjunatha Reddy, Chairman, Standing Committee, Health, BBMP; Mr Gangadhara Swamy, Executive Engineer (solid waste management), BBMP; Mr Venkatesh Srinath, Environment officer, KSPCB (joined in towards the end).

The take-aways, as far as I was concerned, are:
1) With Ms Patel chairing the meeting, there was excellent control over the proceedings, though it started with just Mr Gangadhara Swamy in attendance, the others arriving late. But, once they arrived, and noticed the way Ms Patel was going about things, they became fairly attentive, which was evident from the responses from Mr Reddy and the officials towards the end. As such, it was a fairly good inter-action, which seems to have been appreciated both by the elected representative, as well as the officials.
2) If things go as envisaged by the "Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT)", on whose behalf Ms Sandhya Narayan made an excellent presentation, we will in future need land-fills only for toxic waste, with wet waste being managed within individual homes/ complexes, all within the ward, and dry waste being segregated and 'sold' to re-cyclers, also within the ward.
3) Inspired by Ms Sandhya Narayan's talk, Mr Gangadhara Swamy came on again to make another presentation of an analysis he had done on the income potential (of the order of Rs 180 cr per annum) for BBMP from waste re-cycling, obviating the need for collecting any garbage cess. Resulting from the response (from the gathering) thereof, Mr Reddy was forced to say that the proposed cess levy will be reviewed.
4) While door-to-door wet waste collection needs to be done on a daily basis, dry waste collection needs to be done only once a week, or a maximum of twice a week.
5) Separate vehicles need to be deployed for the two.
6) For those managing disposal themselves (in approved ways), the BBMP should consider offering rebate on municipal taxes.

This was indeed a good example of an inter-active session, for which CIVIC definitely needs to be complimented.

Muralidhar Rao