Going ahead with the provision of user fee for waste disposal services which it approved in June this year, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will collect Rs 200 per month from every household in the city for door-to-door collection of garbage starting January 2021.
D. Randeep, BBMP's Special Commissioner, Solid Waste Management (SWM), informed that the civic body has so far identified as many as 32 lakh houses in Bengaluru from the which the amount will be collected in the initial phase.
"It is a service charge for collecting garbage from doorsteps of the residential waste generators. We are working on all the modalities and facilities and should be able to implement it full-fledged from January. The thrust will be on 100 per cent door-to-door segregated waste collection and street sweeping monitored from the SWM control room," he said.
Asserting that it is not a penalty but a service fee, Randeep said, "The charges are being levied as per the SWM rules and act. Even as wet waste is composted by residents, there is dry and sanitary waste which is being collected and transported and recycled and processed. All these need financial assistance."
He further added that households composting wet waste have been exempted from paying the SWM cess.
BBMP seeks Bescom's help for implementing new SWM bye-laws
The BBMP has initiated a discussion with Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) in regards to setting up a proper system for the collection of monthly user fee.
"The BBMP does not have the infrastructure such as billing machines to collect service charges from citizens. Bescom, on the other hand, already has the reach as each house is metered," Randeep told The Hindu, adding that Bescom's software can be linked with the waste generator mapping app developed by the civic body.
As the talks are in the initial stage and no concrete plan has been formulated as of now, Randeep said that they "hope to follow up with Bescom on the matter and start collecting service charges from January 2021."
BBMP in a fix as garbage contractors threaten to pull back
Meanwhile, ever since the authorities have ceased the unauthorized sum being paid to garbage contractors each month, they have been threatening to withdraw their services of door-to-door waste collection.
The matter of illegal payment was brought to light by Thulasi Maddineni, Special Commissioner (Finance) in the BBMP and an IAS officer of the 2005 batch, who found out that that garbage contractors are making 16 per cent extra (close to Rs 9,000) per auto-tipper every month since June 2018.
