20 September,2017 09:44 PM IST | Mumbai | Laxman Singh
The move has come come after hotels and restaurants in Mumbai have complained about lack of space to set up composting plant
BMC said it will stop collecting garbage from some housing societies and commercial establishments
After hotels and restaurants complained loud and long about being unable to immediately comply with the civic body's garbage composting rule from October 2, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta announced a three-month extension of the deadline.
In June, this year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had announced that it would not collect wet garbage from big housing societies and commercial establishments that have an area of more than 20,000 square metres or which generate more than 100 kg garbage daily. The directive came following an order from the central government under new solid waste management rules, 2016.
According to BMC officials, the extension has been given provided the society or establishment gives in writing that it will start a composting plant within three months.
A few days ago, local ward offices met will all hotels and restaurants in their respective wards, where the issue of space constraints came up. According to civic officials, many of them said because they were old, they had no space to set up any wet waste processing plants. They demanded withdrawal of the circular till they could sort out the issue of space.
Speaking to mid-day, president of AHAR (Association of Hotels and Restaurants) Sudhakar Shetty, said, "We want to follow the BMC's waste management suggestion, but our problems need to be addressed properly first. The BMC should give us space for waste processing."
Shetty said, "This is such a big decision and the civic body should have started conducting awareness at least a year ago. It's not that easy to start composting within three months."
He added, "Another problem is the smell that will arise from composting plants. People in the neighbourhood will start complaining about the smell."
A senior official from the BMC said, "Considering the space crunch issue, we are considering providing a common area in wards for those hotels and restaurants that don't have space. We are planning to implement it soon.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner, (Solid Waste Management) department, Vijay Balamvar said, "We received numerous complaints from hotels and restaurants about space constraints. As of now, we have given an extension of three months. Also, if we feel there is a genuine problem of space then we would consider providing space on case-to-case basis."
