BENGALURU : Even though a lot of apartment blocks, villa communities and resident welfare associations have been at the forefront of the city’s battle for solid waste management, they are still being discriminated by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), said the Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF), that represent hundreds of apartments.
According to Vikram Rai, Governing Council member of BAF, the BBMP had asked apartments to manage their own waste through empanelled vendors but still continued to levy a solid waste management cess on them which he termed ‘unfair and discriminatory’. “Apartment residents end up paying twice for the same thing, to BBMP as well as to the vendor,” he said.
BAF has been seeking a waiver of the SWM cess for apartment residents, but BBMP has still not acceded to this demand.
Segregation of waste at apartment blocks has far surpassed the city wide average, according to another BAF representative Anjali Bhate, whosaid that in some apartments, segregation is almost at 100 per cent. “Quite a few apartments compost their wet waste inside their premises, and do not send out any wet waste to vendors. In addition, apartments dispose their waste in an environment-friendly manner with empanelled vendors even though it is significantly more expensive,” she said.
According to Roomi Daroowala, a BAF cluster council member, the BBMP has now started issuing notices to apartments asking them to install composting equipment on site, which is not always possible as space is at a premium. Burhan Surti, Cluster Council Member of BAF Whitefield added, “Apartment residents also have to put up with BBMP contractors dumping and segregating waste in front of various apartments across Bengaluru, which creates a huge health and hygiene issue.”
The BAF is organising an event titled BAMBOOS (Bengaluru Apartments Making Bengaluru Operationally Outstanding & Sustainable) at Dr B R Ambedkar Bhavan on November 3, where various apartments will be talking about waste management initiatives undertaken by them.