BENGALURU: A day after the state government transferred Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) Randeep D from BBMP, hundreds of people signed an online petition demanding that the government retain the officer in the civic agency. Randeep was among the 12 IAS officials who were transferred on Friday. Now, residents have started an online petition with a #WeNeedRandeep hashtag at change.org where hundreds of people have already signed the petition.
In the petition, they have mentioned “Randeep is an outstanding officer — collaborative, has started an app, and is clear about following Supreme Court guidelines on animal welfare while protecting children and humans. We need D Randeep to continue his good work or the city and civic situation on waste and health will have to bear the brunt.”
This apart, they have started a campaign through social media - on both Twitter and Facebook. “Shocking that IAS officer Randeep was abruptly transferred just when he was starting to make an impact. He is effective, clear-headed, clean and cares about the city and its citizens,” Priya Chetty tweeted. The Whitefield Rising group said Randeep was making things happen on the solid waste management front in the last two months. Even BTM Layout residents requested people to sign the petition and demand that Randeep is brought back to BBMP.
Randeep was posted to BBMP as Special Commissioner three months back. He was taking care of the waste disposal system as well as health. He played an important role in streamlining many of the mechanisms in waste management, including hiring marshals to monitor littering. He also reduced blackspots by beautifying it, among other initiatives.
He also played a role in putting up conditions for the new garbage tender, which was expected to be called by December first week. He stopped some of the loopholes in the existing tender, which otherwise helped garbage contractors.BBMP sources told The New Indian Express that garbage contractors were unhappy with the strict conditions being put in the new tender by Randeep.
“Also, he had proposed to place GPS on auto tippers and compactors so that the vehicles could be traced through a centralised SWM control room. Contractors were unhappy about this. BBMP authorities found that at least 40 per cent of the existing auto tippers were not registered and not working,” the official said.
On Friday too, Randeep has issued a circular on implementing a standard operating procedure for the secondary transfer point for garbage, where contractors have to follow certain rules.