Apartment dwellers trash BBMP move

BANGALORE: The BBMP’s fresh offensive against apartment dwellers asking them to manage the waste they generate has rattled residents. That the civic body collects Rs 60 as garbage cess from every property tax payer has only rubbed salt into their wounds. Many are now mulling legal options and has asked the Palike to clean its stables first before burdening citizens.
Meenal Patel, Rotarian from Bangalore Diamond District, near Domlur, and pioneer of the Green Diamond Project in the apartment, pointed out that in the high court, there was a strong plea not to categorize apartment complexes with less than 100 units in the bulk generator category.
“First, the BBMP has suddenly woken up because of pressure from the urban development ministry and the PM’s Swachh Bharat campaign. But it doesn’t mean they can go beyond court proceedings and burden smaller apartments. There are many apartments that do not have space to manage waste. We still don’t have a wet waste composter and hand over segregated waste to the BBMP. But if they want us to do it all, then why should we pay them the garbage cess? Apart from the cess, the BBMP also takes Rs 30,000 for taking away garbage from Diamond District. Why should we pay them at all? We will definitely take these issues to the court in the next hearing,” she said.
Meenal said that BBMP has not even adhered to court directions. It has set up only 25 dry waste collection centres while 173 more are yet to be established, she added.
Apartments that haven’t received the notice are ready to fight it out with the BBMP too. Dilip K Churiwal, a resident of Ganga Heights Apartments in HBR Layout in North-east Bangalore, said, “I agree that segregation has not been taken very seriously in many smaller apartments but that has to do with lack of awareness. It is not possible to compost and sell dry and toxic wastes to designated places as directed by BBMP because there are so many working people in the apartment and not everyone has the time. This will also increase maintenance costs. We will not pay a penny and will take them head on if we are put on notice,” he told TOI.
S S Kalyanpur of Shradha Golf Heights apartment in Rustambagh Layout, East Bangalore, said, “We segregate waste in our apartment and encourage it in the layout also. But the contractor who picks it up from the ward opens each of the bags and mixes them all in his trucks. There is nothing the BBMP has done to stop them.”