BANGALORE: Who should dispose of the waste? The BBMP, or the apartments? Residents say that the onus of garbage disposal lies with the civic body.
The debate comes in the light of BBMP’s latest missive asking apartments to take up the responsibility of waste disposal too, in addition to segregation and management. But the residents are not amused. They are outraged over the BBMP’s latest move of issuing notices and warning of a penalty and taking action as per rules if the apartments don’t fall in line.
Dipika Reddy, a techie who lives in Prestige Shanti Niketan, said that while the Centre and residents were following the Swacch Bharat campaign, BBMP was taking steps against it.
“BBMP is shying away from its responsibility. Residents in apartments already segregate waste at source. We send waste for recycling and also for compost. Now, it says we should dispose it on our own too,” she said.
Priyanka Bhaduri, who stays in Ittina Akkaala Apartments in Whitefield, said, “They plan to make a good change in the wrong way. My apartment already does segregation of waste and recycles it. But what do we do after that? A proper disposal process should be put in place by the BBMP, which all apartments should follow in every area,” she said.
The residents are also concerned that this move will only add muscle to the garbage mafia. “If apartment complexes are expected to do their own collection and disposal, it will lead to unauthorised parties exploiting the situation,” said Krishna Prasad, a resident of Lake Vista in Whitefield. He said there would be more chaos if multiple agencies were to dispose of garbage.
While some are shocked by the BBMP’s move, others said they were not even aware of it. The residents are confused and don’t know how to go about implementing the rules mentioned in the notice. “The notice has come very suddenly. Informing us that the BBMP workers will stop coming and that we have to manage garbage collection on our own is very irresponsible on their part,” said Debashish Mukherjee, committee member, Gopalan Habitat Splendor.
The complex located in Brookefield has 522 flats. “We will now have to buy our own composter and for a complex with hundreds of flats, there will be space issues too,” he said.
Surekha Rao, a resident of Rainbow Apartments in ITPL, said, “If they want us to do all the work — from segregating to collecting to now even disposing of waste -- what will they do with the money they collect from us? There is already a space issue in apartment complexes. How do we dispose of garbage and where? If they want us to dispose it, they should provide us with space.”
Vijay Mane of Willow Herbs in Whitefield was of the same view. “BBMP should build collection centres in every ward and then go ahead with this move.”