Shame those who spit, say residents at BMC town hall

BMC's town hall discussed user fees for garbage collection, penalties for littering, and waste segregation, gathering mixed feedback from residents.

MUMBAI: It was a small group that assembled for the town hall organised by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday, but those who did make it had some interesting suggestions on the proposed user fee for garbage collection, penalties for littering and spitting in public, and on garbage segregation.

The town hall was organised to discuss the suggestions and objections to the BMC’s new draft bye-laws, which propose a user fee on waste collection and increased penalties for littering and spitting. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

The town hall was organised to discuss the suggestions and objections to the BMC’s new draft bye-laws, which propose a user fee on waste collection and increased penalties for littering and spitting.

Held at the BMC headquarters, the town hall saw around ten citizens discuss these subjects with deputy municipal commissioner, solid waste management (SWM), Kiran Dighavkar.

While most of the residents were against the imposition of a user fee for garbage collection, others insisted on hefty fines for the violation of SWM rules. According to the proposed law on the user fee for SWM, houses and commercial establishments up to 50 sq m will have to pay ₹100 per month; houses between 50-300 sq mt will be charged ₹500 per month; and houses larger than 300 sq mt will have to shell out ₹1,000 per month, while hotels and clinics will be charged between ₹1,500 and ₹7,500.

Residents, however, said that since citizens already pay property tax, it is unfair to charge an additional feel for garbage collection.

As of Wednesday, the BMC received more than 900 suggestions and objections from citizens, online and via WhatsApp. The last date to register suggestions and objections is May 31. Until then, the BMC has planned more town halls.

While Siddhesh Pangam, a resident of Bandra East said, “Some people care about money and some don’t, but more than that, we think there should be shame attached to littering and splitting.” He said, those who spit in public should be asked to clean it.

Karan Shah, a resident of Sion, asked how penalties would be enforced. “There are no clean-up marshals at present but we can identify hot spots where people throw garbage via CCTV. Dustbins can be placed at these spots and, should people still litter, it would be easy to penalise them.”

Some residents steered the discourse towards waste segregation. “At times, the garbage collectors themselves do not know how to segregate waste, so they must be trained. Even citizens are not able to segregate household waste and must be educated on this,” said Neeta Sukthankar, a resident of Walkeshwar.

Arnavaz Bulsara, a resident of Dadar Parsi Colony, said people may not be motivated to segregate waste as they don’t know the end result. “We see segregated waste being dumped together in the garbage trucks. It must be collected separately. Also, citizens should be educated on how it was recycled and the end product.”

Dighavkar said the BMC has put up posters and actively runs a social media handle to spread awareness on this. However, a door-to-door awareness campaign and more result-oriented awareness will be considered.

On waste-segregation awareness, resident representatives said projects on the subject could be introduced in municipal schools; and more litter bins and public toilets were needed across the city.

Mumbai produces more than 7,000 tonnes of solid waste a day, and 8,000 tonnes of debris, which is managed by the solid waste management department. The BMC also recently introduced advanced compactor trucks in its garbage fleet, for efficient collection of waste. The trucks have greater capacity, technology to compress waste, and a tank to store the leachate.

In addition to the collection of segregated dry, wet and hazardous waste, the BMC has offered to collect biomedical waste. Housing societies that want to avail this service will have to register with their respective ward offices.