Garbage Cess Continues To Be A Messy Affair
Though BBMP Bangalore has made it mandatory for taxpayers to pay solid waste management cess along with property tax, the cess is based, not on population, but on the size of the house. The Palike, it seems, hasn’t done any ground work to determine the average number of persons staying in a house built on 30X40 site, but has fixed a fee.
Paying guest accommodations, mushrooming in the city, comprise the bulk of garbage producers but pay a small amount as cess despite accommodating a minimum of 10 to 12 persons in a medium-sized house. But single persons staying in bigger buildings end up paying more even when they don’t generate as much garbage.
Garbage cess continues to be a messy affair. The city corporation now thinks that a bigger house generates more garbage irrespective of the number of persons living in it.
So far, BBMP has collected Rs 13.26 crore as solid waste management cess, with many paying tax to avail the 5% rebate in April. But there has been no change in the way municipal waste is managed in the city. This has irked many activists who are trying to make the city a waste-sensitive community.
“Paying for a better system is not an issue. But I live alone and there isn’t much garbage to throw. Added to this, waste collected from houses is usually burnt in the vacant site just behind my house,” says Vaishali N, who lives near Banagiri, Banashankari II Stage.
“First of all, collection of garbage cess in this way is unscientific. It is also illusory to think that a larger house might generate more garbage. What has BBMP done with all the solid waste management cess collected? Garbage dumps can still be seen everywhere. It is nothing but a disaster,” says Dr Meenakshi Bharath, member of Solid Waste Management Round Table.
According to her, the cess has only penalized citizens on both the sides. “On the one hand, we pay cess without getting better facility and on the other, the pourakarmikas also demand money. In fact, before introducing the cess, what should ideally be done is to make segregation mandatory at the source. Without that, no cess can improve the garbage situation,” she says.
Members of Solid Waste Management Round Table feel there should be a dry waste collection centre in every ward and BBMP Bangalore must collect only wet waste on a regular basis and dry waste once a week.
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