MUMBAI: The
BMC recently requested the
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (
MPCB) to take action against 36 entities across the city, including the income-tax commissioner’s office, Nabard, ICICI Bank, Mumbai Cricket Association, Bharat Diamond Bourse, American consulate and HyperCity mall, for not following
wet waste segregation and processing rules.
The MPCB is empowered under the Environment Protection Rules to cut
water and power supply of entities that violate solid waste management rules by not segregating and processing their wet
garbage.
Some entities across the city have already faced penal action in the past few months for allegedly flouting segregation rules under various Acts (see box). The BMC has filed 1,074 prosecution cases against 492 institutions and societies for the violation.
Reacting strongly to the civic action, residential societies said they are being “randomly penalized” despite following wet waste rules within their premises.
Civic officials said though they have been issuing notices to bulk garbage generators— housing societies, commercial establishments and large institutions—for not processing their wet waste since the rule was brought into effect a few months ago, many have not yet communicated their compliance status. Based on their initial survey, civic officials initiated action against entities found to have not implemented the rules.
The BMC’s solid waste management rules say that bulk garbage generators, which generate more than 100kg waste a day or cover an area of more than 20,000 square metres, need to segregate their wet waste and process it inside their premises after installing composting units.
The BMC had identified 3,308 bulk generators in the city, 2,390 of whom are yet to begin the segregation process.
After the BMC served notices on them, some of the entities installed composting units and some asked for an extension for the purpose but are yet to provide a satisfactory reply to the civic body.
Some entities face multiple cases for violating rules of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, the Maharashtra Regional & Town Planning (MRTP) Act and the Environment Protection Act. Police cases have been filed against a few societies under the MRTP Act too.
Meanwhile, in his monthly meeting on Saturday, civic commissioner Ajoy Mehta asked his officials to “seriously” follow up on these cases.
He asked law officers to request the magistrate court to allocate a specific day in a week to handle cases related to violation of wet waste processing rules.
The BMC implemented the rule last year to reduce its garbage collection load. By January 2018, its daily garbage collection at dumping grounds fell to 7,200 tonne from 7,800 tonne earlier. The civic body intends to reduce it to 6,000 tonne by enforcing the rule across the city.
In the past few days, based on the the BMC’s complaint, the magistrate court at Dadar imposed Rs 15,000 penalty on seven housing societies at Chembur, Govandi and Deonar for violation of the rules. Chairman of Neelkanth society Shankar Iyer said, “Our society has been segregating waste and has had a compost pit in the premises for a long time. The BMC officials visited the premises and appreciated the fact. Despite sticking to the rulebook, we have been penalized. No one was ready to check the ground reality.”
