BBMP responsibilities for garbage management

Salient details about garbage management to be taken up by BBMP in Bangalore

Street sweeping and removal of garbage are obligatory functions of BBMP under Section 58(2) and (3) of the City Corporations Act 1976. This is also called solid waste management (swm). A separate department for swm was set up in BBMP in recent years. Earlier, this function was managed by the Health Department.

SWM Policy

SWM policy is still getting finalized by BBMP under the directions of the High Court. Under BBMP byelaws:

Street sweeping

Street sweeping is done by “PKs” or pourakarmikas. They are not employees of BBMP. It is learnt that BBMP has mapped out a length of 500 metres to be swept by a sweeper in every ward, but the map is not available on the BBMP website. The sweepers are supervised by 3 or 4 supervisors, who are agents of the contractors who were doing the work earlier. Ward committees can ask health inspectors for the streetsweeping map. BBMP pays the wages of sweepers directly into their bank accounts. Details of payment used to be available under each zone on the BBMP website, but this has now been removed.

Household garbage collection

Household garbage collection (of segregated wet and dry waste) is done by BBMP from residential buildings with less than 50 households in auto tippers. These tippers are expected to go into streets and collect waste from individual houses. Where streets are too narrow, garbage is collected in handcarts. In slum areas, where there are no proper lanes, tippers are stationed at one point during fixed hours to receive garbage from houses. At present, one auto tipper with one helper and one driver is expected to serve each block of 750 houses. A building with several separate households is often counted as one unit. The maps and details of the blocks can be seen on the BBMP website here.

BBMP has not yet signed tenders for collecting wet waste. You can get copies of work orders issued in your ward from the health inspector to find out which agency is responsible for house to house garbage collection & for which period.

Wet waste is supposed to be taken for composting and dry waste should ideally be taken to Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs) in the ward for sorting and sale to recycling units.

Buildings with more than 50 different households, commercial establishments etc. (called ”bulk generators”) have to select a garbage collector approved by BBMP. A person who wants to be registered as a bulk generator should fill up the application form for this purpose here. The rules for bulk generators are available here.

Application form to register as Bulk Generator

As there is a complaint that BBMP garbage collectors spend their time servicing the bulk generators and do not collect household garbage, BBMP is thinking of changing its policy and not allowing agencies which do household garbage collection to be registered for collecting garbage from bulk generators. So far, tenders for bulk generators have not been issued.