Mumbai: Paper worth 750 trees saved since BMC’s dissolution

In the past six months since the administration rule started, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claims to have saved 30 tonnes of paper. As there are no corporators, meetings of various committees are not held. Therefore there is no need to use papers for meetings' agenda, etc. Now environmentalists suggest that the BMC have agendas online in future.

On average, the BMC has to use nearly 2 lakh papers per week for agendas which cost nearly Rs 1.25 per page with printing. In the past six months, this number has decreased by less than 10 per cent," said a BMC official.

Kore kaagaz

"The BMC spends nearly Rs 2.87 lakh on papers for agendas. The annual spending on them is Rs 69 lakh. We use around 500 reams of A4 size paper weekly. Each A4 paper weighs nearly 5 grams. The BMC uses 2.50 lakh papers for the agenda. This means the BMC uses 1.25 tonnes paper per agenda. In the past 24 weeks hence BMC saved around 30 tonnes and around Rs 30 lakh," said the official.

Also read: Mumbai: Heavy winds, rain uproot 250 trees in a week

Environmentalists want the BMC to go entirely online in future

Environmentalist Anand Pendharkar said, "It will be better if the committee meeting agenda is henceforth circulated online. This will save paper and money."

"To produce 1 tonne of paper around 24-25 trees are used. At least 700 to 750 trees would have been used for 30 tonnes of paper. The process of making paper from trees also causes carbon emissions and these trees are grown commercially," said Rohit Joshi, an environmentalist.

Environment activist Stalin Dayanand also suggested the BMC should go entirely online. "This can save paper as well as the money of the taxpayer. Online documents are not likely to be lost or damaged. Also, the document can be found even after many years. Therefore the BMC should consider this," Stalin said.

‘Can do'

An IT department, BMC, official said, "The BMC house has the authority to decide whether an agenda should be given online or physically. If the house decides, an agenda can be provided online." Sharad Ughade, director of BMC's IT department did not respond to messages and calls.

The BMC administration had tried to provide an online agenda in 2007. For that 227 elected corporators and 5 nominated members were given laptops each costing Rs 52,000. But as the corporators demanded a physical agenda, they were useless and returned after their term.