The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will develop a web portal that will display the progress of construction work and provide detailed information on the waste left behind by various departments.
The idea behind creating the web portal — which will contain the details of construction work under different departments — is to fix responsibility with the department that generates construction and demolition (C&D) waste and leaves them unattended along the road. Anyone can access the website and let the BMC know about the location of the waste and the agency who has undertaken the work. It will help the residents, the BMC and government departments.
BMC officials said people always approached the corporation for removing C&D waste without having any information about the agency that generated it. They added that the BMC always removed the waste (irrespective of the department generating it) to avoid inconveniencing the people.
BMC deputy commissioner (sanitation) Subhendu Sahu said the website would be accessible to all departments that take up construction work under the BMC’s jurisdiction. “It will function like a grievance redress platform. Residents can let the BMC know where the waste is being dumped. The BMC will draw the attention of the department concerned to the complaint on the same portal,” Sahu added. He further said, “In case an agency expresses inability to lift the waste, it will have to pay transportation fee to the BMC, which will act on its behalf. Every communication will be recorded on the portal.”
Though the BMC’s C&D waste management rules came into effect in 2016, they are not strictly enforced. The civic body had earlier launched a drive to seize waste and fine people for dumping it in public places, but it is yet to come up with a strategy if the waste is generated by a government department.
BMC commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhury said most roads in the city belonged to the works department. “Any waste generated after construction of a road under the works department should be handled by them,” he added.
“There are multiple agencies involved in various works in the city such as digging earth for laying cables. In such a case, the road-owning department should be paid to remove waste by the agency or the department laying cables. The same should be intimated to the BMC for better coordination,” Chaudhury said.
The waste generated through construction, repair, re-modelling and demolition of private and government establishments, households, roads and drains, should be handled carefully to avoid littering. If abandoned, it encroaches on road and makes the city ugly. It also causes accidents.
