Bangalore: Citizens might soon receive bills for their household garbage, just like they would for electricity.

Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Commissioner K. Jairaj said on Friday that he planned to introduce the system on the lines of BESCOM soon. This might earn the BMP about Rs. 15 crore a month, he said.

Collecting cess for solid waste management had been on the BMP plan for some years now. When the administration tried to implement it this January by asking Health officials to collect the cess by going door-to-door, they protested and said that it would overburden them.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Health Inspectors' Association submitted a memorandum to the commissioner expressing the members' inability to collect the cess. They requested the then Commissioner K. Jothiramalingam to entrust the task to revenue inspectors.

JNNURM cell

The BMP has set up a special cell to deal with issues regarding the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Mr. Jairaj said that four officers had been specifically designated to handle projects and programmes related to JNNURM.

The cell is headed by Special Commissioner Gaurav Gupta and includes former executive director of Karnataka Power Corporation Limited Vishwanath, who is the technical adviser, Manjunath, former Deputy Controller, Finance Department, and BMP Engineer-in-Chief H. Rajasimha, formerly with IDBI.

The City Development Plan of Bangalore is estimated to be around Rs. 1,000 crore. It is being appraised by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and will be reviewed by the State-level steering committee headed by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Redressal system

The Public Grievance Redressal system that was to be launched on September 15 might take much longer to come into existence. Mr. Jairaj said that he had put it on hold so as not to overburden his officials. "What is the point of introducing it if the complaints are not attended to?" he said.

Instead, decentralisation had been attempted for dealing with complaints. Joint commissioners at the zonal level had been asked to deal with problems that arose in their zones.

They had been instructed to meet the public every Tuesday and sort out problems within 30 days.

Grade separator

Wary after the public outrage on Malleswaram grade separator, the BMP does not seem to have decided on what should be the next step.

"We are going to discuss it at the Government level," Mr. Jairaj said.

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