Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation ramps up drive against C&D waste

BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has intensified its drive to clear construction and demolition (C&D) waste stacked up in public places ahead of monsoon to check clogging of drains and roads.
If any agency (government or private) or any individual household is found piling up C&D waste on roadside or any other public place, the BMC is penalising individuals and government agencies. Officials of the civic body also said that they would lodge police complaints for violation of Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 against those accumulating C&D waste.
According to the rules, waste generated through construction, repair, remodeling and demolition of private and government establishments, households, roads and drains, should be handled in such a way as to avoid littering.
“If C&D waste remains abandoned, it encroaches road space and lends an ugly look to the city. It also causes accidents and clogs drains. So, through our special drive that has been running since Saturday, we are penalising the people for piling up C&D waste. In two days, we have collected Rs 2 lakh in fines,” said BMC deputy commissioner (sanitation), Suvendu Sahu.
BMC’s squad, exclusively meant for surprise checking of C&D waste in city, are authorised to impose a penalty of Rs 5,000 on the owners of such waste. In addition, if the BMC removes the waste using its tractor, it charges Rs 5,000 per trip. Last September, the government had asked the urban local bodies to identify spots where C&D waste had piled up. They were asked to issue notice to the owners of the waste asking them to lift it at their own cost. If they want the ULBs to collect, required fees along with penalty (as per quantity of waste) will be fetched from the owner, the government had said.
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