BENGALURU: The city's garbage woes never cease to end. The flash strike that was recently called by the BBMP contractors and brought garbage collection to a standstill is a case in example. While one might blame the civic authorities for the problems, a question to ask is how responsible are residents of the city themselves for the mess?
At a meeting between the municipal corporation and civil society members, citizens and NGOs on Wednesday, the latter finally agreed to a plan to start a pilot implementation of appointing ‘clean-up marshals’ in each ward to ensure that citizens are discharging directives given by the BBMP, such as segregation of waste at source, not using plastic bags and to avoid littering, to name a few. Hence citizens would not have a choice but to follow orders.
The concept of clean-up marshals was mooted by the BBMP late last year. However, the idea was junked when some corporators raised concerns about the amount that will have to be spent on the initiative. An estimated `7 to `8 crore was estimated to be the cost. The idea is to recruit ex-servicemen as marshals and give them the authority to oversee and monitor cleanliness in a ward. They will also have powers to penalise citizens.
While there are eight zones under the BBMP, the pilot will be carried out in one or two wards of the zones. The matter will be finalised in a few days. Modalities with regards to the duration of the pilot and how many ex-servicemen to involve is also being decided. Allen Joseph, an SWM evangelist who attended the meeting says, “The BBMP commissioner, BBMP joint commissioner of health and SWM as well as the Minister K J George himself agreed to start the pilot implementation.”
Around two years ago, the concept of Suchi Mitras was started whereby any citizen could enroll to monitor waste segregation and collection. However, without any real powers of punishment, they were not effective at all, says Allen.
Highlighting the present system, Sandya Narayanan, member of the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Round Table and the SWM expert committee, says that under the present system it is the duty of a BBMP health officer to implement the directives with regards to solid waste management.
“Health inspectors are capable of fining every person who does not comply but they do not carry out inspection drives regularly, even if they go for inspections they do not carry fine books. The ex-servicemen with their no-nonsense attitude will definitely make sure that everyone complies with the cleanliness rules,” she adds.
Supervision and penalties would help
Sudhakar GK, is a resident of Anjanapura who faces the brunt of garbage dumping on a regular basis. A huge garbage mound a few kilometers away torments him and his apartment very often with foul smell and fumes when burnt. In his own apartment, he has tried to conduct drives to teach segregation to people however many remain uncooperative. "It would definitely help if there was someone from the BBMP who had the authority to impose fines on people who do not comply," he says.
Sudhakar also pointed to huge mounds of garbage on his daily commute at Doddakallasandra, near Kanakpura Road that he sees every day. "People have started throwing the garbage directly on the road. People who do this need to be punished," he adds. Sudhakar's concern is however what would happen to the garbage even if they are well segregated under the supervision of the marshall, “Merely supervising and penalising I think won't do. The entire machinery of garbage disposal needs to be corrected,” he adds.
Reward good officials
A suggestion has been given to the civic authorities to reward and recognise, officials who carry out their duties treating to SWM. "In every department, there will definitely be health officers who will doing some good work. Rewarding a health inspector who does good work can go a long way in creating pressure on others to prove themselves," says Sandya Narayanan, member SWMRT.
Clean-up marshal system at work
A system of clean-up marshalls is presently at work under the jurisdiction in Mumbai. While the concept was introduced a few years back, it was discontinued for a while before being brought back again last year. However, there have been cases where the clean-up marshals have been accused of charging fines inappropriately.