Let’s snoop on our staff, says BBMP

BENGALURU: For the first time in history, the BBMP is spying on its own workforce. It has engaged a private team from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to check the progress of the solid waste management (SWM) scheme and find ways to enhance its efficiency.

The BBMP picked five wards, including Gandhinagar as part of the zero garbage initiative, and put them under scrutiny. The report by the IISc team made the shocking revelation that 25 per cent of the garbage in these wards was not cleared on a daily basis.

Sources in the BBMP said that the contractors and BBMP officials in the field were not aware that they were being observed. The zero garbage initiative requires garbage to be cleared at regular intervals and more pourakarmikas were hired to ensure that commercial areas were kept clean. The report by the team pointed out that the contractors had failed in their assignment, said sources in the BBMP.

It also pointed out that the zone wise package system to clear garbage allows contractors to fudge the number of men and machinery deployed to clear garbage. The attendance was invariably lower than it should have been. This resulted in poor garbage clearance. Some of the major black spots were not attended to on a daily basis.

Transfer stations (place where garbage is collected from different areas in the ward) are not entirely cleaned as they should be, the team reported.

The BBMP decided to employ an outside team to check on the manner in which contractors cleared garbage after receiving complaints from the public and NGOs.

It was alleged that Rs 300 crore which is spent on solid waste management is going down the drain. Gandhinagar, Shantalanagar, Ejipura, Koramangala, Benniganahalli and Kengeri are some of the wards that have been picked by the BBMP for the zero garbage initiative, which was launched by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on July 1 last year at Freedom Park.