Mumbai: Those people producing too much garbage to be fined every day

BMC wants to reduce the quantity of waste going to the city's three dumping grounds

After failing to convince the 3,374 bulk generators of solid waste in the city to comply with norms on waste disposal, early this week, civic chief Ajoy Mehta directed the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department to initiate strict action against repeated offenders. So instead of coughing up a one-time fine, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will now levy fines that will increase every day until the waste is properly dealt with.

Of the total number of bulk generators (those that generate more than 100 kg waste per day), currently only 1,525 are segregate their solid waste and have set up composting units within their premises to process the food waste they generate. "We have issued notices to bulk generators and have fined them in the past as well. But now we will start imposing daily fines on the repeat offenders till they comply with the norms," said Vishwas Shankarwar, deputy municipal commissioner of the SWM department. He added that they will first issue a notice and after a period of 15 days, start filing cases against the offenders.

Based on the data collated by the SWM department, in 2018, R31.97 lakh was collected through fines from bulk generators, which include restaurants, hospitals and hotels. Despite several rounds of spreading awareness, in many wards, more than half the bulk generators don't comply with the norms. In K West (Andheri), for instance, out of 565 only 91 bulk generators dispose of their waste properly.

Mehta has also instructed SWM officials to make it compulsory for owners of tender coconut and sugarcane juice stalls to process their waste on their own. Assistant commissioners of all the administrative wards have been asked to consider increasing the frequency of removing garbage or placing extra bins at collection points to ensure that the waste doesn't overflow. As part of future planning, the civic chief has also asked the assistant commissioners to calculate the per capita generation of waste in their wards in separate categories for slum, industrial and commercial areas.

3,374
No. of bulk generators of solid waste in the city

1,525
No. of bulk generators from them, who process waste as per norms

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