BBMP cracks whip on solid waste plant

Bengaluru: Scientific Solid Waste Management (SWM) has become a big problem for the BBMP. This is because only 60 per cent of the waste is being processed in the city, while the rest is being dumped on roadsides at the outskirts of the city or in certain quarry pits. To add to the garbage woes, the Chikkanagamangala plant is not functioning effectively and its efficiency had reduced to a mere 16 per cent.

The BBMP has slapped a notice against the Morgan Solid Waste company holding Limited, which is running a waste processing plant at Chikkanagamangala for not adhering to standard operating procedure (SOP) and also for causing unrest among citizens in the city and in areas surrounding the processing plant, said BBMP special commissioner (SWM) Subodh Yadav.

After the notice, the company has partially complied with the SOP and rules. But failure on their part to follow the rules completely has created problems with the BBMP at other plants too. A written compliance report has been sought and a  meeting arranged with the higher-ups of the company to ensure such lapses don’t recur, said Mr. Yadav.

 A notice issued from the office of special commissioner (SWM) stated that although the plant has been running for the last five months with the capacity to process 500 Metri Tonnes (MT) per day, the plant was processing only 83 MT, which is a mere 16.6 per cent of the capacity of the plant.

Not following the instructions of the BBMP has resulted in  protests from the surrounding villagers, for which the BBMP had to take unnecessary blame from the public for no fault of the BBMP. The villagers have been complaining that the leachate generated is being disposed into the qually pit in the plant, which is leading to contamination of ground water,  causing unbearable stench and making life miserable. The operating system has become bad and this cannot be tolerated, the BBMP notice said.

Repeated inspections by the BBMP officials have proved that the plant is either short- staffed or despite the direction to post adequate manpower for the effective functioning of the plant in shifts, this is not being done. There are days when compactors are left outside the plant overnight and as few as just 10 workers, working at the plant. This shows that the plant run by Morgan SWM company is not functioning as per the agreement, the notice stated.