BENGALURU: With Bengaluru still struggling to manage its garbage effectively, the National Green Tribunal on Thursday gave another two months to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to get its act together and make the city visibly clean.
This was one of the prime decisions taken at a closed-door meeting on the solid waste management (SWM) situation in the city, held between members of the NGT and BBMP, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) officials and other stakeholders.
One of the participants told The New Indian Express: “Even as multiple deadlines have been given to the BBMP, things have not improved. Now with the Tribunal’s physical hearing for Karnataka scheduled for October, it is high time they get their act together. A two-month deadline, September, has been set for the BBMP to ensure that the city is clean and there is proper SWM. It is unfortunate that despite SWM Rules 2016, court directions and NGT verdict, BBMP still depends upon landfills and the waste processing units are facing troubles.”
The participant added that waste management is not limited to solid waste, but also waste water and e-waste.Proper collection and disposal centres should be set up. The BBMP has already laid out the rules for bulk waste management, generation, in-situ composition and setting up of processing units. Now it should start taking punitive and legal action against violators.
At the meeting, the BBMP was also questioned on what the SWM company was doing. It is said that the members pointed out that the company was only on paper and nothing was being done on the ground. “The company members are drawing salary, but the ground situation has not changed and BBMP still continues to manage the garbage,” the participant said.