Need to change ways of handling waste

National Green Tribunal State-Level Committee Chairman Justice Subhash B. Adi outlays measures

Mysuru:  National Green Tribunal (NGT) State-Level Committee Chairman Justice Subhash B. Adi has strictly instructed Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) to take steps for the scientific disposal of waste and has asked the Civic Body to penalise people who dump waste on roadsides and footpaths and those who hand over waste to Pourakarmikas without segregation.

He was addressing reporters at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office yesterday after chairing a meeting on waste management and disposal in Mysuru. At the meeting, Justice Adi sought reports from the officials of medical education, veterinary, MCC, health and other departments to take stock of the steps taken to reduce waste generation and scientific disposal of waste in their respective departments.

He said that every Corporator of the Local Body and residents are responsible for scientific disposal of waste generated in their Wards by implementing the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules and there is no question of shirking away from their responsibilities.

The NGT Committee has been entrusted with the task of overseeing the steps taken for the implementation of the SWM Rules and also to ensure that mixing of bio-medical waste with municipal solid waste does not take place in Karnataka.

Segregation levels remain woefully low and continue to drop. The segregation of wet, dry and sanitary waste is only partial and the rest are being dumped in landfills, he noted.

Some reasons cited for this include lack of enforcement by Health Inspectors and poor aggregation of segregated waste either during door-to-door collection or secondary transportation, Justice Adi noted.

“In an attempt to address the problem locally, many communities must be made aware of coming together to explore options to better manage the waste generated themselves.Initiatives like in-house waste segregation, zero-waste campuses, zero-waste events and many more workshops on home composting, urban gardening and terrace gardening must be held across the city,” he added.

 He also pointed out that despite specific laws to penalise the violators, the officials are taking no steps to stop dumping of debris and construction materials haphazardly at vacant places in different parts of the city. “Such materials should be disposed of in a proper way at stipulated places after taking permission from concerned authorities,” he said.

Cautioning people who litter, Justice Adi said that they have to be penalised if they do not comply with the rules that have been publicised in the awareness campaigns. “Only 50 to 60 percent of the city’s waste gets disposed of in a proper manner and the rest is dumped indiscriminately. This must stop,” he told officials.

The NGT State-Level Chairman asked the officers of Mysuru to take concrete measures to make Mysuru a plastic-free district.

Observing that plastic use has dipped in large entities like malls but is persisting in small shops, he said: “Plastic use is coming down in the State, but it can be checked in Mysuru only by increasing penalties.”