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
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
hemen
parekh
Marol
, Mumbai , India
(
M ) +91 - 98,67,55,08,08
No comments:
Post a Comment