India, May 30 -- 'Practice what you preach' is one of the messages for the civic administration, which has invited suggestions and objections to its draft Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Cleanliness and Sanitation Bye-Laws 2025. With only two to go before the deadline to submit them, HT asked experts and activists to weigh in on the proposed bye-laws. Some also questioned how waste collection and segregation would be carried out in slums, while others focused on the missing role of informal waste pickers in the system.

"My main contention is that the BMC is itself not equipped to deal with what it is asking of citizens," said Debi Goenka, executive trustee of the NGO Conservation Action Trust (CAT). "Even when citizens segr...