Mumbai: The Advance Locality Management (ALM) groups in the city could face the risk of deregistration for failing to implement waste segregation and treatment projects in their areas. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to get tough with the ALMs, which have been ignorant about the waste management issue.
“If an ALM is found to be not taking interest in the waste segregation and composting programme, they will be deregistered and steps will be taken to appoint a new ALM,” said a senior civic official.
The ALMs are the citizen groups, which work in their concerned areas to create awareness about civic issues. According to civic officials, there are 719 ALMs registered with the BMC.
“The ALM concept was promoted by the BMC to associate citizens for cleanliness related issues. One of the prerequisite for formation of the ALM was segregation of garbage at source. In view of SWM rules 2016, Environment Impact Assessment Notification and IOD conditions post year 2007, prerequisite qualification for ALM shall also include processing/composting of wet waste at source,” said the official.
The ALMs will be given tasks to associate with the BMC promoting processing/composting wet waste in their neighborhood areas. The role of ALMs will be reviewed by assistant commissioners (wards) and necessary steps/measures shall be taken to ensure that they participate actively in the programme, he added.
Anil Joseph from Perry Road Residents Association (PRRA) from Bandra said, “ALMs have been formed with a primary objective of segregating and treating waste at its source. However, deregistration would be a harsh step as they have also been acting as a watchdog on various issues like illegal hawking, conservation of open spaces etc. The BMC probably should first send a notice to them reminding them of their prime responsibility so that they get their act together.”
