BENGALURU: Bengaluru’s rank at 216 in the Swachh Bharat Survekshan did not please anyone. The city slid further down from its 2017 rank of 210 and also fared poorly compared to other Metro cities.
In light of its ranking, citizen activists have some thoughts on what could be done to improve the cleanliness of the city. Their ideas include adoption of practices followed by other cities, revamping the garbage disposal system and ensuring that pourakarmikas are paid on time.
Pravir Bagrodia, volunteer at Whitefield Rising, said the city could adopt practices followed by other cities to become cleaner. “The use of flexes is banned in cities like Jaipur. But here in Bengaluru, we find hundreds of banners in every locality when an event takes place,” he said. He gave another instance of Ahmedabad, which had successfully implemented mechanised street cleaners.
Chief convener, Citizens for Bengaluru, Srinivas Alavilli advocated a revamp of the garbage disposal system. He also said the rate of population growth in Bengaluru was greater than in other cities. “The government should look after the population growth before it looks for infrastructure,” he said. Another citizen activist D S Rajashekar, president of Citizens’ Action Forum, stressed on educating the city’s residents and an increased focus on segregation of waste.
Rishita Sharma, founder of Green Utsav, an organisation that promotes usage of eco-friendly materials during events, asked why residents were reluctant to compost waste. She also highlighted the plight of pourakarmikas, who are allegedly not being paid their salaries. She added that people could contribute in their way to make the city cleaner, and a way to do that is to stop using plastic.