BENGALURU: After repeated calls to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike for garbage collection fell on deaf ears, residents in East Bengaluru have taken an initiative to handle waste on their own. Garbage collection happens only once a week in Vinayaknagar, K R Gardens and surrounding areas. Irked by this, the citizens have decided to take matters into their own hands.
On Sunday, a group of citizens launched a door-to-door campaign to educate residents in their area to manage dry waste and compost wet waste. The campaign saw a group of residents from K R Garden approach individual households.
Speaking to Express, Rajendra Opre, one of the residents said, “Garbage collection has been very erratic in ward 113 for a year now. As a result, we see garbage mounds line the streets throughout the week. This has become a cause for concern among all residents.”
Residents also complained that the issue was resolved temporarily following discussions with the local contractor, but things came back to square one only after few weeks.
“We also monitored the locality every night to ensure no one dumps garbage on the streets. But it did not work. Hence, we have decided to spread awareness among residents and take the onus of keeping area clean on ourselves,” Opre added.
The residents went about speaking to individual households on how wet waste could be managed and how they could hand over dry waste to a dry waste management centre nearby. They were also given contact numbers of the officials concerned to be informed in case garbage was not picked.
Another member of the group, Aravinda Badarinath said that on day one of the campaign, five apartments, each having 50 households were approached. Besides, even residents of the Ashoka Avenue were told about the initiative.
“At times, dump yards remain closed, and sometimes pourakarmikas are on a strike. Despite these odds, we aim to keep our area garbage free,” said Badarinath.
He said that the campaign would be taken forward with street meetings, series of meetings with schools in the area and also a road show involving all the residents. “We are looking at bringing a behavioural change in people. The point we want to drive home is that no matter what, one must not throw garbage on the road,” he added.