Free city of garbage by Deepavali: HC

BENGALURU: By Deepavali, Bengaluru’s streets must be free of garbage, the Karnataka High Court told the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Wednesday. Making this oral observation, a division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice S Sujatha asked Advocate General Uday Holla to have talks with the City Police Commissioner to use beat police and also ask them to monitor CCTVs installed across the city to keep a vigil on those throwing garbage at non-designated spots including on the roadside. Earlier, the court had asked the BBMP to make the city free of garbage by October 31. 

The court also asked the state to come out with a methodology to stop defacing of walls in the city. 
The counsel for BBMP submitted that 95 per cent of the city was clean and that still 5 per cent was yet to be cleaned. These 5 per cent areas have been identified as black spots where the people dump or throw the garbage filled in plastic covers, the counsel said.  

The court, which disagreed with the civic body’s view that there was no civic sense in the residents, said,  “Our society is full of enthusiastic people. Generate confidence in them and improve your credibility. If you have excellent institutional discipline, then individual discipline will come simultaneously. Therefore, you first must have institutional discipline and maintain roads properly. Place garbage bins where they are not kept”, the court said. 

At one point, the court also indicated that it may relax the norms disallowing the use of mobile phones in the court hall to allow lawyers to call their friends through video calls to show places where the garbage was not collected. 

This was after the counsel of BBMP submitted that interior parts of the city were completely clean.  
The court was hearing a public interest litigation against the garbage piling up near Amma Bhagawan temple in Domlur. It adjourned the hearing to November 5. 

BBMP asks cops to help out with garbage
During the BBMP’s council meeting on Wednesday, the Mayor said a letter had been sent to Police Commissioner Suneel Kumar, asking for the department’s help to provide vigilance to stop people from dumping garbage at open spaces. She also asked councillors and officials to give priority to complaints regarding potholes and garbage.