Bangalore: The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has served a show-cause notice on the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner M Lakshminarayana asking him why criminal proceedings should not be initiated against him for his failure to resolve the garbage problem in the City and reduce the transportation of trash to Mandur.
This was confirmed by KSPCB chairperson Vaman Acharya, speaking to a Bangalore daily “Garbage is purely a government and BBMP business. Yet, we were repeatedly asked what action we at the KSPCB have taken to tackle the problem. We were asked to fix responsibility either on our officials or the BBMP. We have been telling people that we do not have enough powers, but there was pressure on us. So, we have issued a show cause notice,” said Acharya, adding that he signed the show-cause notice a few days ago.
Acharya said that “ a lot more needs to be done in order to stop sending waste to Mandur”. He appreciated the initiatives of Darpan Jain, BBMP’s Special Commissioner for Solid Waste Management, in dealing with the garbage menace. “Platforms have been created for garbage processing at seven to eight places, but commissioning will take at least a year or so. We don’t think that dumping would completely stop in one month’s time given the kind of setup we have in India”.
He said the BBMP had chosen some places to dump waste, which the KSPCB would not allow at any cost. It is learnt that there was tremendous pressure on the KSPCB from certain high offices in the State government to withdraw the notice.
