Kolkata: The civic body's solid waste management has started geo-tagging its employees entrusted with collecting waste from households to ensure proper collection is being carried out in wards. According to the new practice, managers of the KMC SWM department are tasked with photographing the waste collection in a particular ward and sending the images to the higher-ups in the department who oversee waste collection in the borough concerned. The report is eventually sent to the civic headquarters. According to a KMC official, the strict monitoring system has been in place for three months.
According to MMiC overseeing the KMC solid waste management department Debabrata Majumdar, the exercise primarily aims at boosting the waste segregation process at the household level. "We have introduced an app-based monitoring system to keep a watch on waste collection across 144 wards, particularly in neighbourhoods where waste segregation is taking a backseat. Based on the evidence, senior officials in the borough have been authorised to take proper action," said Majumdar.
According to a civic source, the conservancy overseers (CO) have been asked to monitor the performance of the staff in the field and send evidence of waste collection in the wards every day. The photos of waste collection by the on-duty workers will be uploaded and sent to additional directors (AD) of the department, and then, to the higher-ups at the KMC headquarters. The performance of a particular worker on a given land will be monitored and measured for more than a week. "If we find any laxity on the part of any worker or official engaged in the process, s/he will be warned, after which disciplinary action may be taken," said a KMC official.
The abundance of single-use plastic polybags continues to be a headache for waste management in Kolkata, as the ambitious project of segregation at source, which was kicked off in Dec 2022, is yet to gain the desired momentum. Much of this waste is mixed, with major components being biodegradable kitchen waste, plastic and other non-biodegradable or recyclable waste, as well as construction waste. While construction waste is ferried in trucks to a stone and concrete crushing unit in Rajarhat, the presence of plastic polybags in huge quantities in the kitchen waste remains a major problem.
Segregation in several south Kolkata neighbourhoods is gradually picking up, but many areas in north and central Kolkata are lagging. The added areas have even lower segregation efficiency, and only an informal recycling system exists.