This is with reference to the article ’Ask me another’ by Priya Rajan Bala(dtd. 27.2.2001) in the TOI. I answer some of these questions she asked in the article as I am a concerned Bangalore citizen.
Why does the civic corporation not clear the garbage away? The civic corporation doesn’t clear the garbage as the Swaccha Bangalore makes them more dependent on NGO’s who use beggars/ragpickers to collect garbage, calling for an increase of beggars to perform a task they were doing earlier without an uniform. The BMP also have to employ more workers to collect garbage and obtain more funds for door collection of garbage at a time when they have to cut back on their workforce.
The alternative which is better is to replace present bins with completely covered bins with an opening on top with a lid to have garbage thrown into it. The bin is then winched and placed over an opening the same size as the base of the bin on the top of a completely covered civic truck. The base can be slid open and the garbage will fall into the back of the truck. The bin can be fitted with a solar powered ultra-violet system to sterilize the garbage. Why do people still use plastic bags?
The answer to this too is Swaccha Bangalore. Previously citizens used to throw garbage without plastic bags into bins. Now under the Orwellian 1984 style where citizens are asked by BMP to report the neighbours who don’t comply with Swaccha Bangalore forcing them to hang plastic bags overflowing with garbage to attract rabid strays, plagued rats and other insects, cows, buffaloes( Why do buffaloes amble between speeding Santros?) to each gate until the casual arrival of the slow-moving disease carrying handcart carrying Bangalore Forward - to a reign of plastic and disease.
In the pamphlets they hand out they state if the collector fails to arrive garbage should be stored in the house as garbage on streets will rot attracting disease but they fail to state garbage in houses also will attract disease. Also seen are the handcarts wending their way to the garbage bin round the corner to offload the garbage there. Do some object saying we can place garbage inside the compound in plastic containers for collection? What do you do if you have to go out? Can’t diseases be transmitted by the handler from one container to another which you later succumb to? Can’t a person posing as a garbage collector slit your throat and collect your valuables in your house? Why are trees which take years to grow chopped down in half an hour? This is all in the name of progress.
Flyovers which cause accidents, increase congestion of lungs and traffic, Metro bus-stops which are to come up soon bang in the middle of the road eliminating any trees on the median alleged to be in the way of progress, pavements on the side too will be eliminated along with the trees on them to widen the roads to enable construction of pillars of the ELRTS, flyovers, Metro Bus stops. The corporates would rather have their concrete building seen in all its gory detail rather than a tree in all its glory in front of their building. Boston for example has realised that underground roads such as the highway they are constructing is the way out.
Sunil, Bangalore