Series: Court orders & CAG reports on SWM

Such dumps will be a thing of past if the city starts segregating waste at source. Pic: Bhavna Anegundi Divide your trash, to conquer it. Segregate your garbage it into three categories, to make life easy for everyone! Put in simple terms, this is what the High Court of Karnataka ordered in the hearing of the Public Interest Litigation on garbage problem in the city, on December 17, 2015. Two bins and one bag, brought to the High Court of Karnataka by solid waste management activist Sandya Narayan captured the attention of the judges, who agreed with the way they…

The High Court of Karnataka took serious exception to the absence of BBMP Administrator M N Vijay Bhaskar from the court proceedings during the hearing of a batch of solid waste management PILs on Friday. The Special Bench constituted by the High Court comprising of Justice N Kumar and B V Nagarathna refused to accept submissions from the petitioners during Friday’s hearing, owing to the absence of the BBMP Administrator in the court. “During the last hearing in April, the court had given one and a half months time to the newly appointed BBMP Administrator and the Commissioner to study…

In 2008, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) rapped the then-Bengaluru Municipal Corporation, BMP, and pointed out they had not put in efforts to ensure segregation of municipal solid wastes at source, which made processing of the waste difficult. The situation did not change even after six years—CAG repeated the observation in their 2014 report. In 2008 and again in 2014, the CAG report points out that the BBMP has no system in place for waste segregation or scientific processing at landfills, which has led to ecological and environmental burden. Biomedical waste is another area of mismanagement. The CAG points…

High Court of Karnataka (HC) has ordered all the local planning authorities to sanction layouts development plans only if they earmark a dedicated area for managing their own solid waste generated in their layout and nearby localities. The order came during a hearing of Solid Waste Management (SWM) Public Interest Litigation, when advocate Ajesh Shankar brought to the notice of the HC that a Civic Amenity site allocated for a waste processing facility in a BDA layout at Kengeri-hobli was encroached by some parties. Taking cognizance of this, the HC Bench comprising of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice N…

The High Court directed Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to reopen the processing unit in Mavallipura, by allowing upto 300 tonnes of pure segregated wet waste to be composted. The two-judge Divisional Bench headed by N Kumar and Nagarathna gave the order in the special hearing that took place in High Court of Karnataka on July 17, 2014. The 40-acre landfill has been leased out to Ramky Infrastructure Pvt.Ltd for 25 years, in which there is a part that has a processing unit. The Judge, N Kumar said that instead of lying unused, this should be used to process pure…

Trucks that don't exist in reality are added to garbage transport database of BBMP by adding random numbers, which sometimes include two-wheelers and buses! Pic: Shree D N First the High Court, then the Chief Minister. Now it is the turn of Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of Karnataka to point fingers at Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s garbage management. CAG has noted that BBMP has spent more than the amount allotted towards Solid Waste Management expenses; At the same time, BBMP has lost more than 66 crores by not collecting cess in 2008-11 from 18.38 lakh households! In the CAG Report…

High Court of Karnataka (HC) suggested that BBMP make payments for tree-planting contracts only after monitoring the survival rate of the seedlings for an year after planting, to ensure that the seedlings planted are protected and maintained. In a suo motu PIL (WP No. 7288/2011) filed by former justice D V Justice Shylendra Kumar for  mass tree felling in Jayamahal Palace road in 2011 for widening the road, BBMP Advocate Subramanya R informed the court that the afforestation tenders for this year have already been awarded. Amicus curiae Vaishali Hegde pointed that the agreements that are already signed for this…

As an immediate remedy for daily wet waste generated in Bengaluru, Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Department of Karnataka (UDD) D Satya Murty submitted to the High Court of Karnataka (HC) on Thursday, June 26, 2014, that portable processing units with the capacity of 50 tonnes will soon be installed in 15 to 20 wards. However, the bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice N Kumar observed that processing units in 15 to 20 wards will not be sufficient when Bangalore has 198 wards. Murty submitted to the court that the government is keen on solving the garbage problem…

  High Court of Karnataka (HC) asked Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to be careful while choosing the lowest bidders while awarding tenders for biomining at Mandur, as many of them have failed in the past. On June 18 2014, HC Green Bench Division comprising of Justice N Kumar and B V Nagarathna passed a series of orders in the SWM PIL filed in 2012 after the villagers of Mavallipura  and Mandur stopped dumping of garbage. HC accepted the suggestions of  the Expert Committee on Solid Waste Management made on June 13, 2014, to adopt the method of biomining to clear…

Expert Committee on Solid Waste Management submitted to the High Court in Bengaluru that a simple and the only solution to solve Mandur problem effectively was to screen the dump, recover the useful materials and dispose the organic and inert waste, through a process called biomining. On Friday (June 13th 2014) the Green Bench of High Court of Karnataka, comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice N Kumar received the suggestions by the Expert Committee, on how to dispose the existing dump, the measures to be taken by the BBMP among others. A copy of the suggestions ia available with…