BENGALURU: With too many civic agencies and poor implementation of plans, Bengaluru is unable to improve its Swachh Survekshan rankings in the last five years, according to experts working with the BBMP. Bengaluru has the highest density of waste volunteers in India, yet the city’s ranking in solid waste management is not improving because of lack of coordination and leadership which will take onus, they pointed out.
Malini Parmar of the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT), said there are too many policies, organisations and officials managing waste in the city. There is too much planning on paper, but implementation on the ground is very poor. There is no coordination between agencies which is the main reason why the city’s ranking is not good, she said.
BBMP Special Commissioner, solid waste management, Hairsh Kumar said the ranking has not improved because there is no positive feedback from citizens and there is lack of ownership of the city among citizens. He said now it is time for hard and smart work to improve the ranking.
But citizens do not agree. They point out that in places like Kaikondanahalli, Koramanagala, Sarjapur Road and Shanthinagar, black spots have been cleared because of citizen and volunteer participation. Another expert pointed: “The government must stop and think about why black spots are still standing and why people still throw garbage on roadsides.
This is because proper door-to-door collection is still not happening. The GPS on most vehicles is defunct or has been damaged and cannot be tracked. In Mumbai, waste segregation is poor, yet the city is clean and has better ranking than Bengaluru because garbage is strictly picked up by the corporation.”