BENGALURU: Reacting to the National Green Tribunal imposing a penalty of Rs 2,900 crore against the Karnataka government for failing to address the solid as well as liquid waste management issue, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike stated that key takeaway from the verdict is that there should not be any construction debris lying around and sewage should be treated properly.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath said the order has come in the backdrop of debris found not just in Bengaluru, but also across the state. Also, the untreated wastewater also resulted in the penalty. “Not just BWSSB, even agencies across Karnataka should deal effectively with waste water. The solid waste should be processed well and dumping of construction waste and debris should be stopped,” he said.
While BBMP agreed that lapses have been committed in managing solid and liquid waste, the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT), an NGO working for improving solid waste management, blamed political intervention for the mess. SWMRT founder Sandhya Narayanan said that no new waste management plant has come up since 2015 and in the last seven years, existing seven waste processing plants have faced a lot of trouble and stopped functioning a number of times due to protests, leading to waste being sent to landfills at many places.