Bengaluru: Complaints over single-vendor system for bulk waste collection in Bengaluru persist, with apartment residents continuing to flag higher costs, limited bargaining power and lack of choice of service providers.Residents say apartment complexes that had existing waste-collection arrangements are being asked to shift to designated vendors, with some facing charges of up to Rs 12 per kg or Rs 300 per flat every month. Although the Rs 12-per-kg rate is understood to be a ceiling, residents allege that vendors are quoting the maximum, leaving little scope for negotiation.Bengaluru Navanirmana Party founder and general secretary Srikanth Narasimhan said residents should be allowed to choose from among multiple agencies rather than being tied to the vendor assigned to their corporation. “We are not opposing regulation. BSWML should set standards and hold vendors accountable, but it should not decide whom residents must pay when multiple qualified providers are available,” he pointed out.Some residents said there has been an improvement in the situation, but only after consistent negotiation and monitoring. Shyam Padhi, a citizen volunteer and resident of Whitefield, said his complex negotiated a rate of Rs 200 per flat per month. “In the past, our apartment used to incur a monthly cost of around Rs 50,000 after processing some waste in-house and composting it. We are now paying close to Rs 1.5 lakh per month for all categories of waste,” he said.Padhi added the situation improved compared with May after bulk-waste vendor Mukka Proteins onboarded local vendors to help with collection. While the arrangement initially faced friction between the company and local vendors, it was gradually streamlined with the intervention of active citizens and corporation officials, he said.The issue had earlier drawn the attention of Bengaluru development minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who urged agencies not to charge apartment residents more than Rs 8 per kg and promised that more vendors would be empanelled to prevent a monopoly.Meanwhile, responsibility for waste collection and transportation has been transferred from BSWML to the five city corporations. Residents say the corporations must now closely monitor vendors, ensure compliance with solid waste management rules and address complaints over pricing and service quality.
