Municipal bye-laws’ agenda requires a lot more attention to ensure its use is universal across all ULBs
Photo for representation: iStock
In its pursuit to gauge the efficacy of how municipal bye-laws are being used by Indian cities to effectively enforce legal measures towards circular economy in solid waste management (SWM), Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) initiated a national scale study encompassing 37 cities from the cross-sections of east, west, north and south India. While selecting the states, population and other demographic factors like hilly cities, cities on the coast, riverine cities, etc. were considered as much as possible.
Data collected during the study looked into three different aspects of municipal bye-laws and its implementation on the ground. In order to analyse the current state of municipal bye-laws as a public policy, the methodology considered the assessment of bye-laws as a legal and enforceable instrument at the disposal of urban local bodies (ULB).
The cities were asked specific questions on the state of implementation according to their own provisions of the bye-laws, which were further triangulated during field visits and interactions with the stakeholders. Citizens were asked specific questions to evaluate the state of implementation of various elements of bye-laws according to their observations and experiences as recipients of the service.
An analysis of 37 municipal bye-laws across India has led to the understanding that all the relevant components of municipal bye-laws for SWM have found their place in the respective bye-laws. Source segregation of waste, door-to-door waste collection, prohibitions for open dumping, user charge collection and penal provisions for contravention have been found in almost all the bye-laws studied.
Prevalence of various components in various bye-laws studied by CSE
Urban India generates nearly 160,000 tonnes of waste per day. As per Central Pollution Control Board report 2020-21, only 50 per cent of the collected waste gets processed and 18 per cent of the collected waste gets dumped 31 per cent remains unaccounted. It gets piled up in various places, causing air land and water pollution and contaminating marine ecosystems by finding its way to the oceans through the land to see pathways.
Field level findings suggested that even this estimation is overrated, as heaps of waste are still a common sight in cities. Despite strong mandates, fresh waste is still being dumped conveniently next to sites where old dumpsites are being remediated under the flagship Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0.
During the study, CSE also found that proper implementation and enforcement of certain provisions in the bye-laws could have brought desired changes in waste management practices. The colossal growth in population coupled with migration to cities has increased the challenge of urban SWM manifold.
The bye-laws from various cities have strict mandates to promote and adopt the 3R principle, including a range of strong enforcement measures like 100 per cent source segregation, on-time door-to-door collection, IT systems based monitoring of waste management operations, etc. Bye-laws also called for behaviour change drives to inform the citizens about the provisions of the bye-laws and enhance community participation.
It also spoke of the compliance by bulk waste generators (BWG). Some of the bye-laws mandate the integration of informal waste workers into the mainstream waste management value chain and includes provisions to treatment and processing of waste going to the landfill.
Bye-laws have also been found emphasising decentralised waste management, strengthening penal provisions for open dumping, burning, littering and not segregating at source.
In some cities, bye-laws were found to be critical in recovering fines and collecting user fees from citizens against waste management services.
In its study, CSE did a three-fold analysis of some components of the bye-laws. First are the components available in the respective bye-laws. It then checked with the sample cities about the implementation status of the same, and then again, it did an opinion poll with the citizens to validate the data.
The results showed that the implementation status of the municipal bye-laws on SWM requires a lot of attention to strengthen. Some highlights of the study findings are summarised below, along with an interpretation of the collected data.
All bye-laws studied have the provision for mandating source segregation — 59 per cent cities claimed that they were enforcing and practicing source-segregation using the bye-law, but only 32 per cent citizens agreed with the cities’ claims.
BWGs are entities generating 100 kilogramme or more waste per day. Some cities like Panaji (25 kg), Gurugram (50 kg) or Indore and Rajamundry (different categories) have changed this definition in their respective bye-laws. The legal mandate to the BWGs is to treat their wet-waste in-situ, yet the current rate of compliance with in-situ management of organic waste is 43 per cent, the study found.
Decentralised waste management should be the first preference by ULBs as mandated in the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 — 65 per cent of the bye-laws reviewed mentioned it, but only 26 per cent cities implement it.
100 per cent cities covered by the study have prohibited open dumping of waste, but only 26 per cent citizens agreed it is actually implemented in their cities.
The collection of user charges is a major source of revenue that plays a critical role in instituting a financially sustainable solid waste management system. Despite the fact that 100 per cent bye-laws have clear provisions for the collection of user-charges and 73 per cent claimed to be enforcing it, citizens of only 42 per cent cities validated that the city governments were actually collecting user-charges using the provision of the bye-law.
Effective enforcement involves appropriate penalisation for the contravention of laws. Given that 100 per cent bye-laws have kept penal provisions as a mandate, only 43 per cent citizens have actually seen them implemented.
Municipal bye-laws act as a critical policy to reward the complying citizens for home composting, source segregation or BWGs for managing their organic waste within their premises. Common incentivisation measures include rebate in property tax, partial or complete waiver of collection charges, etc. Many cities have used their bye-laws to good effect to secure sustainable practices, yet such provisions are found to be in practice in only 8 per cent cities.
Monitoring and grievance redress go hand in hand when it comes to sustainable solid waste management. Grievances regarding solid waste management issues from citizens validate the quality and quantity of services. Various cities have different mechanisms. Only 28 per cent cities were found to have instituted some kind of grievance management system with regard to their waste management services.
So, we can summarise that the usage of municipal bye-laws as a legal instrument has been very limited. Cities have either not been able to understand the true potential of using bye-laws or there is a serious need for capacity building among elected and appointed local government functionaries.
Even though provisions are adequate in the law books, bye-laws have hardly been amended and made contemporary, popularised or their provisions have been enforced properly. The very purpose of the bye-law is to provide a legal basis for planning the collection, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal waste for the ULBs, which seemed not to have been realised by the local governments.
While the elected representatives need to be a lot more sensitive to ensure the bye-law is contemporary and relevant, the onus of implementing the bye-law is that of the administrative leadership. Nevertheless, it is apparent that the agenda of municipal bye-laws requires a lot more attention to ensure that its use is not intermittent but universal across all the ULBs in India.
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