WEDNESDAY l MAY 30 l 2012

w w w. f i n a n c i a l e x p re s s . c o m

Reflect 11

Pammal cuts its waste: Community at work

Segregating dry garbage from wet, and recycling much of it
arrange for its disposal. In 1994, they formed a self-help group (SHG) and received some land as donation from the Sankara Eye Hospital so that their composting work could expand. With a loan of R40,000 from a bank, they put up a vermicomposting shed and began the process of converting waste into wealth. This was before 2000, when the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management and Handling Rules were first announced by the Government of India, requiring (i) daily house-to-house collection of segregated waste, and (ii) recycling and composting to minimise disposal in landfills. For the SHG in Pammal, the next break came in 2004-05 with a grant of R13.25 lakh from PepsiCo for building infrastructure on the site, and buying vehicles for carrying waste. By 2004-05, they were covering 7 Wards and by 2006, all 21 Wards. PepsiCo helped out with R17 lakh towards meeting the operating expenses in 2005-06 in the course of the expansion. The transition from a SHG to a nongovernment organisation was made in 2006 when they registered as Exnora Green Pammal (EGP), an Indian nongovernment organisation. The town panchayat gave them 1.1 acres of land. They bring residents, local government, schools and businesses together to comply with the MSW Rules. EGP spreads awareness of the impending disaster. Solid waste in India is projected at 260 million tonnes (five times the current level) by 2047; plastic wastehasincreasedfourfoldsince1999, and is projected to increase tenfold by 2030. The problem can be made more manageable if much of the garbage is recycled, and only 20% or so of the waste is left to be properly disposed. EGP has been building capacity in waste management and enterprise development, while raising awareness of the importance of reducing and recyclingwastetoimprovethequalityof environment in which we live and the public health conditions we create for ourselves. They have integrated their a white bag with instructions on how it is to be used for carrying dry waste to theGreenAmbassadors,someof whom I saw at work, whistling as they approached the door of each household to collectthewaste.Therewereothersfast atworkcleaningthestreets.Ramya,the young and enthusiastic coordinator of the month-long campaign, is a gold medallist from Loyola College. Among the numerous awards received by EGP and its dynamic founder leader,MangalamBalasubramanian,is the UN Habitat-Dubai award in 2008-09 in the Promising Practices category for the Pammal SWM project. Mrs Balasubramanian has reservations about the role private sector can play in this field. As she put it, Rewarding waste managers on the basis of tonnage of trash transported and dumped, leaves no incentive for waste reduction. The community has to get involved in the primary task of waste reduction and waste segregation. On the economics of the solid waste management operation, the experience of EGP shows that only about 50% of the operating costs are covered by recycling, etc, and the rest have to be provided either by the community or the local government or a corporate social responsibility budget. There is a good case for more government spending in this vital area, which has serious implications for public health. A green tax can help mobilise funds. But even more important than the spending is the need for local governments to engage their communities in addressing the challenge of waste reduction, waste segregation at source and waste recycling. Disposing of the rest of the waste would then be a manageable business. Pammal has shown the first steps in this direction. Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia is Chairperson, ICRIER and also former Chairperson of the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure Services, which submitted its report to MoUD in March 2011

Postcards of Change

ISHER JUDGE AHLUWALIA

ammal is a small town in Kancheepuram district of thestateof TamilNadu,with a resident population of 85,000 and a floating population of 15,000. This little town, less than half an hours drive from the Chennai international airport, made a transition from a town panchayat to a Municipalityonlyin2005,butithasshownwhat community action can do to solve the problem of solid waste management. Like any other city or town in India, Pammal suffered from garbage, put out by households, rotting in unattended dustbins, and spilling over on to the streets and pavements. Since Pammal has no underground sewerage system and the Municipality has been constructing open storm water drains on both sides of the roads/ lanes in recent years, the problems of managing solid waste are compounded by the absence of the infrastructure for managing liquid waste. In 1993, a group of middle class women in Ward #1 of Pammal decided to take charge of their physical surroundings. They decided to buy a cycle rickshaw for collecting garbage from the 260 households in their Ward for delivery at the roadside dustbins, and charged the households R10 per month for the service. When residents living near these dustbins objected, the group decided to minimise waste by recycling a major part of it. They started segregating kitchen waste from the rest and usedtheformertomakecompostunder a tree in Danvantri garden. This would mean less garbage at the roadside bins andlessworkforthelocalauthoritiesto move this from the dustbins and

activities with those involved in the recycling of materials. The kitchen waste is converted into vermicompost (organic manure), charcoal briquettes and biogas. The compost is packed as EXORCO brand and sold to farmers in the nearby villages. It fetches a good price because of its good quality resulting from the use of segre, gatedwaste.TheCentralPollutionControl Board of India tested EXORCOs compost samples and found only 11 mg of lead content per kg, much below the safety standard of 100 mg per kg. The daily average generation of biogas is 50 cubic metre. Dry leaves are converted into charcoal briquettes and sold. Thin plastics(carrybagsandwaterpouches) are sent for recycling and converted into handbags, office files, wall hangings, etc. EGP has received an EESO certification for reducing carbon emissions by over 8,000 tonnes by 2011.

What started as a simple initiative to clean up the surroundings of their homes in 1993, has turned into a civil societymovementtoworktowardsaclean environment.EGPhasrespondedtothe call to go beyond the borders of Tamil Nadu by adapting their model of solid waste management to suit local conditions. Their 500 Green Ambassadors serveoverhalf amillionresidentsinsix localities in four states of India. These include, besides Pammal and Mangadu (a temple town of about 40,000 population) in Tamil Nadu, Panipat in Haryana and, more recently Sangared, dy in Andhra Pradesh and Kamarhatti and Panihatty in West Bengal. Until two years ago, households in Pammal paid R10 to R25 per month for collection. The Municipality has taken over this responsibility in their budget. Households contribute their segregated dry and wet waste at

source to EGP, which by and large covers their processing cost. Financial support for Panipat and Sangareddy is provided by PepsiCo under their CSR plans through an annual MoU with EGP. For Kamarhatty and Panihatty, the Municipalities pay for the processing cost, EGP and Bio Vision (a private firm) pay for the management cost, and the community pays for the primary collection cost. When I visited Pammal a few days ago, the town was in the midst of a major month-long campaign (sponsored by PepsiCo) to raise awareness of the importance of segregating dry and wet garbage at source. This was in collaboration with the famous Muguvari team from Trichy, using street theatre and folkdancesthroughParaiandOyiltype methods to communicate. The performances are combined with door-todoor field work, and residents are given

Chennai in the throes of a crisis

Runs on petrol pumps due to hiked petrol prices, and an expected rise in diesel prices, have created a shortage that affects all sections of society

AFTERMATH OF FUEL PRICE RISE

Can physical disabilites disqualify a witness?

getting 50 GYRO units on a condition that the payment will be made after the acceptance of the The Supreme Court has ruled that deaf and dumb units by it. Bipromasz, though not obliged under the witnesses need not be prevented from giving contract, could supply only 14 units due to the short evidence in court merely on account of their validity of the Letter of Credit. Thereafter, BEL did physical disability as they can do so either by not respond to the Polish companys writing or through gestures. It said that the communications. Hence, the foreign firm requested testimonies of such witnesses are valid BEL to agree on a name of an and admissible pieces of evidence as independent and impartial sole long as the same is done in an arbitrator. BEL opposed the same on intelligible manner to the satisfaction the ground that the disputes have to be of the court. A dumb person need not referred to its chairman and managing be prevented from being a credible and director or his nominee, in terms of the reliable witness merely due to his/her purchase order. The Supreme Court, physical disability Such a person . however, recognised the though unable to speak may convey apprehensions of Bipromasz that the himself through writing if literate or arbitrator nominated by BEL, who is a through signs and gestures if he is subordinate of the chairman, would unable to read and write, the apex not act impartially . INDU BHAN court said, while dismissing an appeal Bias cannot be proven on the filed by the Rajasthan government basis of imagination against the acquittal of one murder convict Darshan Singh. The victims deaf and dumb wife The Supreme Court has said that in a democratic was the star witness on whose testimony Darshan polity justice, both in its concept and in essence, , was sentenced to life imprisonment by a fast track being fair and unbiased is the bedrock of good sessions court. However, the high court had set governance. It is not to be forgotten that in a aside the trial courts conviction, giving the benefit democratic polity justice in its conceptual , of the doubt to Darshan. eventuality and inherent quintessentiality in essence forms the bedrock of good governance, the apex court said, while dismissing a petition by Independent arbitrators have to be Chandra Kumar Chopra, a major in the Indian Army , impartial to both parties The Supreme Court has appointed Justice Ashok who was held guilty of financial irregularity in C Agarwal, retired Chief Justice of the Madras High claiming transportation bill reimbursement. Court, as the sole arbitrator to resolve disputes Addressing the bias that Chopra attributed to the between Bipromasz Bipron Trading SA and Bharat general court martial (GCM), the apex court said that Electronics Ltd (BEL). Normally the court appoints , mere suspicion or apprehension is not good enough an arbitrator as per the agreed terms between the to entertain a plea of bias. The allegation of bias parties in the contract. However, in this case, it cannot be a facet of ones imagination and should deviated from the procedure after recording reasons be scrutinised on the basis of material brought on for the same. In the present case, the Polish firm had record, it added. bagged an order in October 2008 from BEL for the The GCM in June 1990 had sentenced Chopra to supply of various goods, including GYRO units. The cashiering and a rigorous sentence of five years. supplier had sent 10 units of GYRO stabilisers, which However, the confirming authority while were rejected by the PSU on the ground that the goods retaining cashiering, reduced the five year supplied were not of Russian origin. Later on, BEL rigorous sentence to six months. The Delhi High directly contacted the Russian manufacturer and Court had declined to interfere with the decision obtained the units through some other exporter to of the confirming authority. frustrate the purchase order of Bipromasz. BEL then again showed interest in August 2010 in indu.bhan@expressindia.com

VERDICT CORNER

Deaf & dumb people can make valid witnesses, if statement is satisfactory

SUSHILA RAVINDRANATH

hennai has been in the throes of an unprecedented fuel crisis for almost a week now. Some roads are looking deserted as many bunks haverundry .Thereisnopetrolordiesel available for love or money At the same . time,someotherroadsarecloggedwith traffic as vehicles are rushing to some gasstationortheotheronrumoursthat petrolisavailablethere.Thisispossibly the most miserable summer Chennai is experiencing in recent times. It is usually a water shortage that hits the city . Now its a power shortage, which has had a cascading effect on many shortages, all fuelled by the increasing demand for diesel. The petrol crisis started with the announcement of the steep price hike. As is normal, all car drivers rushed to the petrol pumps to fill their tanks to beat the price hike. What many people did not know was that supply of petrol to bunks was only once a week and it is really a tight demand and supply situation. When the government started hinting that diesel and LPG prices were also likely to go up, there was a run on diesel as well. This time it was not just the diesel car-owners and the transport companies that rushed to beat the oncoming price hike, but also people who are now depending more and more on their diesel generators for their power needs. There has been a diesel shortage in recent times with the unplanned shutdown of one of the units of CPCL from April 27 to May 14. A shutdown for a few days due to water shortage in the

Mangalore Refinery further impacted availability across three southern statesTamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Oil company officials explain that dealers do not usually order a full tank of petrol, but a combination of petrol and diesel. One full tank of 12,000 litres of petrol costs around R10 lakh, which many dealers cannot pay up at once. So, they settle for a combination of diesel and petrol. The rules do not allow for partly filled petrol tankers to ply the roads. The oil companies, however, have not been able to rush to the rescue with diesel supplies. Huge amounts of diesel are being consumed by industrial units, shops, hotels, hospitals, theatres and other commercial establishments. Residential buildings run diesel gensets during the long hours of power cuts. Industry has also been substituting costlier fuels such as furnace oil with cheaper diesel. According to oil company representatives, during February, March and April, a growth of 25.2%, 25.7% and 19.5%, respectively, was recorded for diesel. The all-India average growth rate for diesel was around 8% during

this period. In the current month, too, industryhasbeenrecordingagrowthof around 20%. The shortage has made vegetable prices shoot up as well, due to the fact thattherearenotenoughtrucksleaving the wholesale vegetable market, which has pushed up the already sky-rocketing vegetable prices by a further 25-30% in the last two days. Taxies and threewheelers, if they are plying at all, are happily fleecing customers. People are sweltering in the retail outlets, which have been forced to switch off air conditioners. There is also a drinking water shortage as there are no trucks available for the companies that supply drinking water cans to transport them. Several offices have asked employees to work from home. Lorry owners are darkly whispering that oil companies are creating an artificial diesel shortage to hike up prices. The oil companies and the state government have promised that the situation will be resolved soon. In the meanwhile,peoplearerunningoutof patience. sushila.ravindranath @expressindia.com

ROHNIT PHORE