A recent survey by Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has identified 8,000 ‘black spots’ where public have dumped garbage in the open and at street corners.
Most of these spots are at areas where dustbins were located previously. Bangalore became a ‘bin-free’ city in 2000, when door-to-door garbage collection was introduced. However, people still associate the earlier bin spots with waste disposal. Also, BBMP has at least five transit points for waste disposal in every ward, which are now littered with garbage. Add to this, most of the black spots are on empty plots and below electrical transformers, say sources.
“It is not a statistic to boast of, but it’s definitely a first step towards clearing them,” says Yathish Kumar, Joint Commissioner (Health), BBMP, garbage disposal in-charge.
An activist from The Ugly Indian, an NGO which clears out black spots in the city, said in many areas waste-collectors turned up late in the morning, by which time most of the residents would have left for work and thus end up dumping their waste at the street corner. The BBMP had also considered re-installing dustbins in 2012. However, the proposal was dropped later.
Urban expert V. Ravichander blamed citizens for the creation of black spots. “We have a strong sense of family, but a weak sense of community. The failure to adopt segregation of waste at the source by the community has led to this,” he said. According to him, the only way to prevent a black spot is to nip the menace in the bud. “BBMP officials should take residents into confidence regarding dumping waste and clear it out immediately,” he said.
Mr. Yatish said that the BBMP had now teamed up with ‘The Ugly Indian’ to clear off these black spots. He also added that the zonal engineers were also pressed into action to clear off these black spots.
Published - August 07, 2014 12:43 am IST
