The Mandur landfill site is set to shut down on February 1 depriving Bangaloreans of a major rubbish dumping yard. But a majority of the citizens are yet to grasp the concept of segregation of waste at source and implement it, thus potentially paving the way for another garbage crisis in the City.

Barring a few apartments, not many people have adhered to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s grandiose plans to keep the City clean and reduce the burden on landfills.

The City found itself in a garbage conundrum, even as Palike bigwigs were busy battling BMTF

The year 2012 will be remembered most for the ugly transformation of the Garden City into the Garbage City, thanks to vested interests, indifferent citizens and the administrative breakdown in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. Amid the bureaucratic failure leading to chaos in the BBMP, the year also saw the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) registering cases against many prominent figures - Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka, Law and Urban Development Minister S Suresh Kumar, Mayor Venkatesh Murthy and senior bureaucrats like A M Shivakumar and V P Baligar.

The dying lakes in the City have now become the dumping grounds for the mounting garbage in the metropolis.

A truck dumps garbage near Subramanyapura Lake in Bangalore on Wednesday. The trend, an apparent step towards eventual encroachment, has is hastening the demise of the lakes, and one example is the Subramanyapura Lake in Uttarahalli ward in Bangalore South constituency. Already choked due to sewage from the nearby apartments let directly into it and rampant encroachment by the slum-dwellers, the lake is now facing a new threat from garbage contractors.

The powerful garbage contractors in the City are out to sabotage the BBMP’s reforms for garbage disposal, Palike officials say.

Officials say the contractors, who had so far had a stranglehold over the lucrative business of garbage disposal, are worried over the growing awareness among citizens about the segregation-at-source and other initiatives of the BBMP to recycle waste within the City, and are out to defeat the reforms. Some of them are dumping waste lifted from one part of the City to other prominent places. On Wednesday night, a truckload of filth was dumped near the St Marks Cathedral on MG Road, leaving the church authorities furious.

It took more than a decade and crores of rupees (approximately

Rs 350 crore a year) for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to create the highly toxic garbage hillocks at Mavallipura and Mandur. Now the civic agency will spend another decade and crores of rupees to undo the damage. As part of its 'social responsibility,' the Palike will undertake the Herculean task of detoxifying Mandur and Mavallipura landfills which bore the brunt of City's unprecedented growth in the last two decades. It will disintegrate the garbage mounds oozing leachate and emanating unbearable stench, by biomining and deodorising them.

Waste disposal system went haywire after the formation of the BBMP

Hardly 10 years ago, farmers bringing vegetables to the K R Market in the City would never return to their villages with an empty cart. newly added problem: Local bodies merged with the erstwhile corporation had their own garbage disposal system. dh photoThey would take with them 'green waste' in abundance on a daily basis. The rotten vegetables could not be sold to the customers, but farmers knew their importance as it helps increase the fertility of the land and the crop yield.

Palike to take up rejuvenation of the water body again

In an annual ritual of sorts, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to take up the rejuvenation of the Ulsoor Lake in the City. The only difference this time is that the Palike is planning to construct a footbridge there. According to Palike sources, the BBMP is taking up the de-silting project worth Rs three crore, besides the improvement of Ulsoor Lake and construction of a footbridge.

Before the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike could exorcise the ghost of fake-bill scam, another financial misappropriation to the tune of Rs 50 crore relating to garbage clearance has come to hau

Rajagopal Nagar corporator H N Gangadhara wants to quit as corporator because he can no longer handle the public outrage against the garbage menace.

Gangadhara appealed to BBMP engineer (Lakes and Environment) B V Satish to increase the number of sanitation workers and vehicles deputed for garbage clearance at the earliest. However, he was told to wait for a month in view of the new contract, which the official believed “would improve the situation.”

Funds to be used for remodelling of stormwater drains in four valleys of the City
Bangalore, The fund-starved Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has something to cheer about. It has succeeded in availing an additional grant of about Rs 309 crore for remodelling of stormwater drains in the four valleys of the City under the Centre-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM).