BMC plans to delegate powers to housing society for waste segregation

Housing societies to be given powers to identify households and fine them if they fail to segregate waste. File pic

Considering the difficulty in reaching out to every housing society under its purview, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to delegate powers to housing societies to take action against residents who fail to segregate wet and dry waste. Municipal Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi has instructed Solid Waste Management (SWM) officials to come up with an action plan on how societies can act against non-cooperative members.

He said as part of the plan, the society authorities concerned should be given powers to identify households and fine them if they fail to segregate waste. However, sources said the plan would be finalised only after the BMC decides on how much rebate it would give on property taxes to societies, which consistently segregate and compost waste.

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Only those societies where residents hand out dry and wet wastes separately will enjoy the benefit. Even if a single household fails to follow this, the society would lose out on it. To ensure that more and more societies avail the facility, BMC officials said it would intimate the committees of all societies to take action against the non-cooperative members so that they achieve 100 per cent segregation.

The notices that would inform the societies about why they lost the rebate, would also mention that they would have to take action against the members concerned. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a civic official said, "In a meeting chaired by the civic commissioner last month several initiatives were discussed, which includes meeting society chairmen and secretaries on the issue of segregating waste, drafting a policy about granting concessions on property tax to societies who do segregation and composting, giving powers to housing societies to penalise households not segregating waste."

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When contacted, Deputy Municipal Commissioner of SWM, Ashok Khaire, said, "Once the decision about how much rebate to be offered is finalised, the societies which fail to earn the discount will be intimated that they need to segregate waste and action will be taken in case of non-cooperation."

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