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There are no dustbins in my locality...damn!
Written By shekhar_mittal - 22 March, 2009
Civic amenities Bangalore BBMP Waste Management Garbage Complaint Cleanliness
7am in the morning i just happen to go for a walk and all I end up feeling is that this city which I have fallen in love with over the past 2 years is 1 huge trash can! Depressed at that thought and thinking what we at praja can do about it...it just happens that 1 gentleman throws an empty cigarette box on the road right in front of me.
I gather some courage to go upto him and point out that it would be great if he could pick it up and throw it in a dust bin.
Immediately, he retorts back by saying that there are no absolutely no dustbins around.
Dejected, i walk away....
But i have a few questions in my mind.....
1. Do we have a functioning waste management system at all?
2. Who are the guys from whom we can ask questions?
3. What is it that we can do?
Pranav pointed out that the biggest election issue that came on the top was "Clean Bangalore". Well thats a surprise :D
COMMENTS
psaram42 - 22 March, 2009 - 06:38
There are no dustbins by design. Earlier one was there right in front of my house. It was really bad and ugly. It was never good. I was extremely happy when the BBMP graduated to waste management programme No 1, which is in place now. However the collection of generated waste is outsourced to private parties. As expected this is the bottleneck. The 3 wheel type yellow vehicles are totally in adequate. Though the yellow vehicle has its loudspeaker on every morning pleading to give the generated waste whenever they are collecting goes unheard etc. and people do end up throwing the garbage any where and every where. The no 2 programme is awaited. This is to be based not burial but processing the waste scientifically. I am not an expert on this aspect. PSA
blrpraj - 22 March, 2009 - 07:15
Now, the reason that there are no dustbins on the street is because that more people like him are the ones running BBMP who will readily give more excuses for why there are no dustbins on the street.
Read the following post of mine which illustrates the excuse based mentality which is responsible for a lot of maladies afflicting us - http://praja.in/pune/discuss/2008/07/traffic-chaos-and-reforms-analysis-and-way-forward#comment-6268 Contrast this with good governance and a reasonably disciplined society can do half way around the world from Bangalore - http://praja.in/discuss/2008/08/out-sight-out-mind#comment-7404
psaram42 - 22 March, 2009 - 08:35
Was my comment “Dust Bins were got rid of” a lame excuse Doc? On the other hand the point I wanted to make was we are progressing, though very slowly on the waste management issue. The dust bins were removed and we wanted them to be removed. BBMP brought the system of collecting the garbage from every door step daily. This is a factual statement that I am making.
There is corruption every where I guess, even in the country where you stay at present, because corruption is a state of mind. Ours is a “third world country” a term coined by Jawaharlal Nehru as per Wikipedia. Here in our country things are slow because of corruption. Yes it is a lame excuse to declare so. You are right.
The person who is throwing garbage on the road is doing injustice to other residents. Whenever we see such careless behavior we see that he does not repeat such offence next time. Lot of my time goes on keeping a vigil on my street at all odd times.
Thanks Doc!
PSA
people pick up their dogs poo..
blrsri - 22 March, 2009 - 08:38
while doing their morning walks elsewhere..hence as blrpraj says its just a lame excuse!
BBMP had funds till now and with a little of that and a lot of curruption they were keeping the streets cleen..however the funds are drying out..and so will the cleaning measures soon..
Its high time we practice restraint in throwing garbage anywhere and everywhere..else we will become the dirtiest city soon!
Reply from BBMP would most likely be - dustbins get stolen fewdays after we put them, so its a losing battle.
Designing street furniture for our country is a challenge because of above reason. Concrete, fixed to the ground bins could be the answer. Or may be metal bins chained or welded to the electricity poles.
Regardless, you only have to go to whatever large dustbins you have in your neighborhood and you will find that dustbins only define the "approximate zone" where the garbage needs to be dumped. The dustbin is like the bulls eye in that zone - those who 'shoot' garbage bags at it, don't get it perfectly right at times :)
Incidentally, an old Praja member from Mysore, Mr Vijendra Rao is about to start a cleanliness campign. He will be posting the details very soon. Will be interesting to track and help him.
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