Opposition trashes BBMP’s plan

BBMP floor opposition party leader MK Gunashekar has criticised chief minister Jagadish Shettar for ordering closure of Mandur landfill without consulting opposition parties.

At the BBMP council meeting here on Saturday, Gunashekar said  the ruling party has failed to consult the Congress or JD(S) leaders, before taking a decision on Mandur landfill. “The chief minister has taken the decision in a hurry. The ruling party will be held responsible if anything goes wrong in future,” he said.

Gunashekar also questioned the efficacy of the mayor’s plan to manage solid waste. While the commissioner has announced that segregation should be done at the source, the BBMP is yet to set up ward-wise segregation points. The officials have not even submitted compliance report to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, he said.

The opposition leader also questioned why two BBMP teams were sent to Salem and others places to study solid-waste management when the BBMP itself has many experts.

Gunashekar said the officials have not studied the road history before allotting pourakarmikas at various divisions and have failed to properly formulate the tender conditions. The BBMP has failed at the initial stage itself, he observed.

Similarly the officials have mentioned that the BBMP generates 3,500 metric tons of garbage, but in the garbage tender it is 5,000 tons. The BBMP itself is not sure about the amount of garbage generated by the city, he quipped.

JD(S) leader Thimmegowda said the BBMP has still not provided training to the pourakarmikas in Basavanagudi on segregation of waste.

Shortage of civic workers
Dharmarayaswamy temple ward P Danraj (BJP) said his ward was woefully short of pourkarmikas, though there are two bus stands and two commercial markets. The number of pourakarmikas have remained unchanged for the past 15 years, he pointed out.

Reacting to this, Kottegepalya corporator S Venkatesh Babu (BJP) said that more than 300 to 400 pourakarmikas have been deputed to clear the illegal hawkers. They should be called back, he said.
Subhasnagar corporator T Mallesh (Congress) said there were lot of discrepancies while awarding garbage tenders and also questioned the competence of the officials. He remarked that they were not even fit to sell tea and bun! He also accused them of nexus with garbage contractor mafia.
Cauvery protest 

Banashankari temple corporator AH Basavaraj (BJP) raised the issue of Cauvery water and said that while the ruling party members had visited Mandya and to take part in protests,  Congress and JD(S) leaders did not even attend the council meeting to decide on taking part in protests.

This drew angry reaction from Congress and JD(S) leaders.