BMC officer on a mission to stop years-long practice of dumping garbage

Ever since Shirish Kunde, a junior officer with the solid waste management department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, joined the ward office in Bandra three months ago, he has taken up the task to change people’s decades-long habit of dumping garbage in the open. After getting to know of an open garbage dumping site, Kunde first speaks to the locals and informs them of BMC’s door-to-door pick-up policy. To those who come by, they explain the reason for not dumping in the open and offer them alternatives.” A common refrain many have, Kunde said, is they’ve been carrying out the practice for years. “We helped install CCTV cameras to observe the spots, and that’s how we figured out who dumped when the Swachchata Doot volunteers were not on watch,” she said.