Congratulations , BJP !

Congratulations , BJP ! ( - in this case , Shri B J Pawar )

Hindustan Times ( 15 Aug 2016 ) carries a news report , titled :

" Housing Societies that go green , to get rebate on property tax "

The report is about BMC ( Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai ) announcing a discount ( in the property tax ), to bring down the load on over-burdened landfills

Mr B J Pawar ( Deputy Municipal Commissioner ) is quoted as :

"  The rebate will depend on how the Societies have reduced the three-step work of the Civic body i.e. collection , transportation and disposal of waste "

Under the Scheme , if a Society segregates waste into wet and dry , processes it through composting or any other method , has reduced its energy consumption by using solar panels , uses grey water and has in turn reduced its consumption of potable water , will get the discount ( which , according to a TV Channel news last evening , would range from 10 % to a max of 20 % )

India's policy makers have started to listen to - and implement suggestions given by ordinary citizens !

Thank you , Shri Pawar !

PROOF  ?

My following blog / email sent to all concerned ( Central / State Ministers / BMC Officers etc ) :

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Incentivize Housing Societies

Disposal of garbage ( wet and dry ), is a big problem for all Municipalities

In Mumbai , it is a daily 8,000 ton problem

Despite a large fleet of garbage collection trucks and thousands of municipal employees ( including employees of contractors ), streets remain littered and garbage dumps keep overflowing ( when not burning ! )

All kinds of solutions have been attempted in the past to solve this problem, without much success

This is because current perception of the garbage generating households ( and of the office bearers of the housing societies ) , is :

 *  Garbage collection / disposal is Municipality's responsibility

This problem will persist till we succeed in changing this perception to :

*  Garbage disposal is our responsibility "

This change of attitude can be brought about by " Incentivizing " the members of the Housing Societies

HERE  IS  HOW  :

*  The society where I live ( Marol / Mumbai ) has 200 Members ( flats )

*  Each member pays monthly Municipal Tax of ( approx ) , Rs 600

*  That translates to Rs 1.2 lakh per month ( Rs 14.4 lakh / year )

*  In 5 years , Society pays to Municipality, Rs 72 lakhs

*  Govt / Municipality to make it compulsory for each big society ( size to be

    decided ), to install on its premises :

    #  Methane gas generating plant or Compost Fertilizer plant

         (  to take care of wet / organic garbage )

    #   Water recycling plant ( to filter and reuse water from shower / wash

          basin / kitchen sink for toilet flushing purpose )

    #   A Compacting Press for dry waste ( paper / bags / cartons etc )

*   Towards installation of such plants , Municipality to give a discount of

     25 % to the Society in monthly taxes , for a period of 5 years

     That is a rebate of Rs 150 / month / flat for 5 years

     This would work out to a saving of Rs 18 lakh ( 25 % of Rs 72 lakh )

*   This amount should be sufficient for the Society to invest in these plants

     and for paying wages for persons needed to look after their operations

I believe such a positive incentive will motivate most of the Societies to undertake to install such facilities

As a negative incentive , Govt / Municipality should levy additional surcharge of 25 % on the monthly taxes ( ie raise to Rs 750 / month in our case ) to those societies which fail to implement this scheme within ONE YEAR of notification

It is high time citizens are involved and motivated ( through negative as well as positive incentives ) in keeping their cities clean and its environment pleasant

I am sure such an experiment will find a far better response from the public as compared to the ODD-EVEN scheme of Delhi ( which too will succeed when Delhi-ites find plenty of Public Transport )

Incidentally , Shri Arvind Kejriwal and his team should study ( without sending a delegation abroad ! ),

*  " Share - a - Bike " taxi scheme ( BIXI )

which has successfully solved the traffic congestion problem in Montreal ( Canada )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

17  Aug  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs