The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Now engineers will monitor garbage

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Tuesday, Jan 06, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Now engineers will monitor garbage

Krishnaprasad

Public Health Engineering wing to be created

Bangalore: The Medical Officers of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) are no more in-charge of supervising garbage collection, clearance and transport to dumping sites in your localities.

Now, citizens need to contact the Engineering Department of the BBMP instead of the Health Department if the garbage in their area is not cleared regularly or door-to-door garbage collection is not effectively functioning.

Yes, the BBMP has transferred these responsibilities to its Engineering Department from the Health Department with effect from January 1 till it creates a new wing — Public Health Engineering — which will specially comprise of environmental engineers.

Till the creation of the new wing, the Assistant Engineer of the respective wards will ensure municipal solid waste management (MSWM) under the supervision of Assistant Executive Engineer and Executive Engineer of the respective zones.

Though the BBMP already has six environmental engineers, it requires many more as city generates MSW of about 2,500 tonnes to 3,000 tonnes every day. The existing environmental engineers are currently monitoring transportation of waste through Geographical Information System and disposal at various disposal sites. These environmental engineers will now have to offer technical advice on MSW to the Chief Engineers and Superintending Engineers of the zones.

The BBMP is not only the last among the other metropolitan cities in the country to entrust these responsibilities to engineering section but also the last among the city municipalities in Karnataka itself.

The need of specialised engineers in MSW management was found essential by the Supreme Court which played a crucial role in late 90s while dealing a Public Interest Litigation petition on disposal of MSW and ensured that the Union Ministry of Environment came out with MSW (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 based on the report submitted to the court by an expert committee.

The BBMP initiated action to involve environmental engineers to deal with MSW from past two years after its senior officers during their visit to other cities of the country realised that health officers are not engaged for this purpose. As an initial step, the BBMP had entrusted responsibilities like coordinating with various agencies involved in disposal of waste, identification of waste disposal sites, developmental GIS based monitoring system, etc and now the MSW is in the court of engineers.

Relieved from the responsibilities of garbage clearance, as many as 35 medical health officers, deputy health and health officers will now be posted to various public and clinical wings from February 1 onwards depending upon their expertise as they have to ensure smooth transfer of MSW management to Engineering Department till January 31.

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