BMC to give out dustbins to 3 lakh households

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will distribute dustbins to about three lakh households in Mumbai, to promote segregation of dry and wet waste and to tackle the rising garbage disposal issue.

The civic body would be spending Rs 4.5 crore to purchase three lakh dustbins of 10-litre capacity each. The proposal was approved during the standing committee meeting on Tuesday. A contract has been allotted to M/s Mak Envirotech and solutions Ltd to supply the dustbins. But several corporators opposed the decision citing previous failures of similar proposals.

NCP corporator Dhananjay Pisal said that there were financial irregularities in similar dustbin distribution proposals during previous years and demanded an inquiry. “About Rs 7 crore has been spent in last two years but most of the dustbins received were either damaged or were not distributed. The project also had financial irregularities,” said Mr Pisal.

“What is the point of distributing dustbins, when the civic body does not have trucks to carry dry and wet waste separately We need to focus more on changing the mindset of the people, and come up with a different action plan to tackle the situation of waste segregation,” said BJP corporator Vinod Shelar.

MNS corporator Sudhir Jadhav said that each corporator is going to get around 1,300 dustbins for their wards, which would be insufficient.