Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka laid the foundation stone for an integrated plant for garbage segregation and generating power from biogas, as part of efforts to address the garbage menace, in the City on Monday.

The project will come up on the vacant site near the NMKRV College at a cost of Rs three crore.

Bangalore’s unprecedented fall into the depths of waste management standards has triggered global attention, even a dramatic New York Times article.

While many took offence at this inglorious attack on the city’s image, the civic agencies might have to depend on international help to arrest this dangerous slide into absolute chaos. German help, to be precise. On a visit to Bangalore, the German State Secretary for Economic Cooperation, Gudrun Kopp elaborated on this vital input and how the experience of Germany’s enduring 12-year partnership with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) on waste management might just turn the tide.

Contractors held accountable for garbage segregation

After coming under fire from all quarters for hitting the headlines in New York Times for poor garbage clearance in the City, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Council on Tuesday approved 80 municipal solid waste disposal contracts worth Rs 305 crore. The Council also gave the nod for purchasing 400 acres of land, off Bagepalli near Chikkaballapur at Rs 6.75 lakh an acre for garbage disposal. It was decided to entrust the responsibility of land acquisition to Bhagirathi Enterprises through a general power of attorney. After verification of records, the resolution to buy land would be forwarded to the State government.

Basking in the glory of its “IT Capital” tag brandished globally, Bangalore has just had an inglorious wake-up call.

The city’s notoriously ineffective, unscientific waste management has been laid bare by “The New York Times” in a strikingly incisive report titled “India’s plague, trash, drowns its Garden City during strike.” Stung by this global attention of the stinker kind, the civic agencies are frantically, cluelessly looking for a way out for the mounting garbage piles.

Study shows high leachate levels remain untreated

The haphazard dumping of garbage at various landfills outside the City has taken a toll on the health of residents in surrounding villages. Leachate, a toxic fluid which is often discharged from decomposing urban organic waste has been responsible for the contamination of both groundwater and surface water in areas around the dumping grounds.

The Pasakha industrial estate problem will be dealt with only in November

KSPCB approved operationalisation of dumping yard for only three months

 The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has allowed the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to dump garbage at Mavallipura for three more months. Vaman Acharya, chairperson of the KSPCB told Deccan Herald on Thursday that the unprecedented garbage crisis in the City compelled the Board to reconsider its decision on closing the Mavallipura dumping yard.

A day after several hundred idols were immersed in the Yamuna on the last day of Durga Puja overloading an already polluted river, the Delhi Government’s Environment Department started the process of cleaning up and decongesting it on Thursday. The work is expected to end by early next week.

Delhi Environment & Forest secretary Sanjiv Kumar said: “This year the department began the work of ensuring that the river was put under as little stress as possible because of the immersion and we had regular meetings with the registered Puja committees asking them to use only environment-friendly material which does not harm the river further. As a follow-up to the exercise we also interacted with various stakeholders early this week to review the measures put in place for idol immersion in the Yamuna during Durga Puja.”