Corporators threaten to dump trash outside Mehta’s home

Mumbai: City corporators have alleged that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is arm-twisting citizens into segregation and processing of waste. They have claimed that with the civic administration not picking up waste, heaps of garbage have started accumulating in the city.

Corporators have threatened to dump garbage outside the residence of the municipal commissioner and municipal ward offices in the event the civic administration does not reconsider its decision on waste segregation and processing.

The BMC had made it compulsory for bulk waste generators - including big housing societies, five-star hotels, malls and industries which produce more than 100kg waste every day and have an area of over 20,000 sq mt – to dispose wet waste in their premises themselves.

These entities had been asked to provide facilities such as organic waste converters, vermi-composing, bio-methane etc. in their backyard to treat waste at source. However, corporators claimed that processing wet waste was the responsibility of the BMC and not the people.

Raising the issue in the civic standing committee, senior Shiv Sena corporator Rajul Patel said, “Though the waste segregation and processing concept is good, the civic administration is carrying it out in a haphazard manner. People should be given adequate time for its implementation.” If the civic body did not pick up wet waste, they would dump garbage outside the civic chief’s residence and municipal ward offices, she said.

Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh came out in support of Patel saying, “In societies built after 2007, it is the builders who had agreed to carry out waste processing. So why is BMC forcing citizens to implement it?”

Another Sena corporator Mangesh Satamkar said that the civic body had not devised any particular policy for societies of the state and central government for waste segregation and processing.

They needed to be given adequate time to comply with guidelines, he said.