It was Day One of segregation of waste at source in the city. Although garbage trucks could not return from the Mandur landfill due to heavy rain, garbage tempos and pourakarmikas were on the move across the city. But it was more of a day of education than action as the concept of waste segregation did not appear to have sunk in yet. Deccan Chronicle did a quick survey of the mess across the city..
The scene in
Malleswaram
“This area still needs a lot of work. The message has not filtered down from the commissioner to the pourakarmikas,”said activist Meenakshi Bharat, adding, “People are under the impression they must segregate waste from October 1 and collection will start the next day. Pourakarmikas don't seem to have got the message either as they don't have containers in which to collect the segregated waste. So no real progress was made here.”
Lavelle road
It may be one of the most affluent parts of the city, but waste collection was pathetic on Lavelle Road too. People here didnt seem aware of the new BBMP ruling and to make matters worse, the pourakarmikas didnt appear to be doing their rounds either. The result : quite the pile-up. “The collectors always come once in two days,” said Ashish Sen, a resident of the area. Staff at a restaurant said segregated waste was picked up by the BBMP every day.
Cantonment
The pourakarmikas who showed up for work, collected unsegregated waste without a word. Domestic workers in the area appeared to know about the segregation at source, but the BBMP didnt seem to have spread the word door to door. Nearer Frazer Town you saw BBMP trolleys full of unsegregated waste even at noon, when it should have been lifted by 6am.
JP Nagar, Jayanagar, Arekere
Pourakarmikas had placed two bins in front of many houses. But a mix of waste was collected from both the bins in Dollar’s Colony, JP Nagar. Secondary collection points and transfer points across Jayanagar were dumped with mixed waste too. In Arekere, garbage collectors picked up mixed waste and informed people they would accept only segregated waste from Tuesday.
BTM layout
Deepti Chauhan, a resident of BTM Layout posted on Facebook: “Today at Crescent Classic Apartment, BTM, we had kept four bins for segregation(dry,wet,sanitary, hazardous). Only wet and sanitary was supposed to be taken daily but pourakarmikas took everything and it got mixed in their van.”