The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities will conduct a door-to-door survey to ascertain the status of waste segregation in households, from Thursday.
The BBMP, which made waste segregation at source mandatory last October, is yet to enforce it. The state Cabinet approved the proposal to include penalty clause in March 2013, and the same will be enforced after completing necessary administrative formalities. With dry waste collection centres ready at all wards by June end, the BBMP is planning to enforce it effectively.
The door-to-door survey will start at BBMP south zone which consists of 44 wards. Speaking to Express, BBMP Additional Commissioner (South) Dr K V Thrilok Chandra said the Palike is planning to have 31 zero garbage wards, which means no waste from here will go to landfills. Of the 31 wards, five are in the south zone and the project is expected to be launched soon. “Before the project starts, we want to know the ground reality of segregation at source and that is why the survey,” he said.
Explaining further, Chandra said pourakarmikas who go to houses to collect waste every day will update the BBMP health inspectors or supervisors in the wards on the nature of waste collection from each house. These officials will be given a prescribed format to feed the data. “There will be columns to write serial number, property number and address, along with phone number, segregated waste or unsegregated waste and also a column to write remarks. The officials not just feed these data, they will also randomly visit those houses to cross-check,” he said. However, this initiative will be limited to individual houses. “We will speak to members of apartment resident associations and seek their help in knowing the status of segregation at their complexes,” he added.
This initiative is expected to help the BBMP in many ways. “We will know where we need to focus. If people in certain areas are already segregating waste, there will be no need for us to inform them again. It will save our time too,” he said.
‘Waste Gets Mixed’
On the other hand, residents fear that even though they segregate waste, it will be mixed during transportation. Mukunda Rao, member, Jayanagar 5th Block Residents’ Welfare Association said, “Though this initiative gives us an idea on the status of segregation, the BBMP must ensure that segregated waste remains segregated in trucks. Waste gets mixed in many areas as both wet and dry waste is collected every day. Instead of this, they can collect dry waste once or twice a week.”