BBMP to revert to single agency for waste collection?

However, experts say the civic body will then be violating National Green Tribunal orders and SWM regulations

It’s been nearly two years since the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) decided to have separate tenders for collection of different streams of waste. Though this is yet to be fully implemented in all the 198 wards, the civic body has already gone back to the drawing board to put in place another system allowing a single service provider to collect all streams of waste.

The new system, which is still being worked out, will not just fix gaps in wet and dry waste collection that currently exist, but also bring in accountability, besides allowing for optimal utilisation of collection vehicles, said senior BBMP officials.

However, waste management experts said that the BBMP’s justifications hold no water. Many argued that if it adopted a single service system, the civic body would be violating not just orders of the National Green Tribunal, but also its own Solid Waste Management bylaws that stress on separate collection and management of different streams of waste.