Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy on Thursday apologised to the public for the city’s garbage problem at the BBMP council meeting.
Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy on Thursday apologised to the public for the city’s garbage problem at the BBMP council meeting.
Various resolutions were passed to tackle the issue. They included betterment of the living conditions for Mavallipura residents, and strict action against the production and sale of plastic below 40 microns.
The mayor said that for the past 15 days the public have been suffering due to the garbage problem. “More than 7,500 metric tonnes of garbage is still on the streets and is yet to be transported. This is an embarrassing situation for us, so I deeply apologise to the public,” he said.
The mayor said that the garbage crisis arose after the BBMP engineers and workers unions went on strike. The Mavallipura dumpyard had to be closed due to the KSPCB notice. Later, the villagers of Mandur and Terra Firma in Doddaballapura also protested against dumping garbage in their area. All this aggravated the city’s garbage problem, he said. Murthy urged the public and corporators to concentrate on the segregation at source.
Meanwhile, opposition party leader MK Gunashekar expressed dissatisfaction over the mayor not taking action against Ramky Environment and Energy Private. He demanded cancellation of contract to Ramky. He said the problem started because of negligence by BBMP officials, who failed to provide compliance report to the KSPCB.
Gunashekar demanded that the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act 1976 be amended to make segregation of waste at source mandatory and the residents who implement it should get tax rebate. He also demanded a ban on plastic below 40 microns and urged formation of a district planning committee as per KMC Act, where the committee will identify landfills and manage it.
Breach of garbage contract
Hanumanthanagar ward corporator K Chandrashekar said the contractors are expected to first segregate waste and then shift it on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. But no one is adhering to the norms. Yet, BBMP has extended pacts with erring contractors. Contractors who have violated nearly 17 of 26 tender conditions have participated in bidding for the new garbage contract, he said.
Chandrashekar said according to the Municipal Solid Waste rules, buffer zones should be declared in one kilometre radius of the dumping yard. But land mafia in the area instigating the villagers against its implementation, he added.
Yediyur corporator NR Ramesh alleged that land mafia was booming in the village. When Jyotiramalingam was the BBMP Commissioner, two land developers pressured him to reduce the buffer zone of Mandur dump yard to just 200-metre radius, from 1 km.
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