BENGALURU: A day after the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) announced penalties ranging from Rs 19,200 to 1.28 lakh to be levied on vacant site owners who let their premises turn into a garbage black spot, residents, site owners and opposition leaders have flayed the move and dubbed the initiative as “extortion”.
While the GBA will start penalising such plot owners from August 15 as part of the ‘Freedom from Waste’ campaign, Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP), opposition BJP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a few residential welfare associations have termed the move as “harassment”.
BNP founder Srikanth Narasimhan said the GBA should first implement collection systems. AAP leader Ashok Mruthyunjaya said this move was an “unwanted burden” and if owners approach the court, the GBA will face embarrassment.
Former ruling party leader in the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagaar Palike (BBMP), Padmanabha Reddy, termed the move as anti-people.
“The exercise by the GBA is pure extortion by the government. The GBA and the state administration have hit an absolute rock bottom with this draconian, anti-citizen policy. For decades, regular taxpayers have watched Bengaluru transform into a garbage zone entirely due to systemic failure, corruption and absolute incompetence of the municipal corporation.
Yet, instead of fixing their broken waste management system, tracking down commercial dumpers, or maintaining basic public hygiene, the government has chosen to terrorise and penalise honest, hard-working landowners,” said Mruthyunjaya, demanding a rollback of these extortionist fines, double taxation rules and land-grabbing clauses.
Highlighting the government collecting “registration charges, property taxes, user charges on garbage and cess”, Padmanabha Reddy said the government has only one intention, and that is to take money from Bengalureans through one or the other schemes.
“Site owners do not intend to keep their property vacant and allow garbage to be dumped. The public throws waste in vacant sites due to the failed garbage collection system,” said Reddy.
Solid Waste Management activist Kathyayini Chamaraj lashed out at the GBA, saying that it has failed to follow the high court order to set up local processing units. There were suggestions to set up street-wise or ward-level biomethanisation plants to contain the waste going to land fills, which was not followed. Waste collectors collects money and mix waste. All the anomalies is from municipality side which is going after site owners to collect money through penalties. “First you (GBA) set up waste collection systems. Bring trucks with separate compartments for dry, wet and bio waste separately,” said Chamaraj.
However, some residents like Dayalu Arasappa from HBR Layout Residents Welfare Association welcomed the move, saying the penalty will act as a deterrent against site owners who deliberately leave their site open and unprotected despite requests.
OVER 2,400 TONNES OF WASTE & DEBRIS CLEARED IN EAST CITY FROM AUG 1-10
As part of the Freedom from Waste campaign, Bengaluru East City Corporation undertook a special drive in Mahadevapura zone from August 1 to 10 to clear debris and eliminate legacy black spots. The operation was led by Joint Commissioner Dakshayini K. “During the special drive, more than 2,400 tonnes of debris that had accumulated over a long period at various public places and government lands were cleared. The cleared debris was transported to the Yerappanahalli quarry and disposed of as per the prescribed procedures.
Three tipper trucks and one excavator were deployed for the operation to clear the large quantities of debris from various locations,” she said. As per the joint commissioners, 1,975 tonnes from Chinnappanahalli Railway Parallel Road area and 426 tonnes from the Bhoganahalli area were cleared. A total of 16 major legacy black spots where waste had been accumulating for a long period and causing inconvenience to the public were identified and cleared.
