KANNUR: It was a good shot played for the gallery. But, as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tried to boost his image of a tough ruler, the livelihood of 20,000-odd waste collectors across the state has been hit badly. And, while playing for the gallery, the Chief Minister himself had gone against the rules of the mission formed for the development of the state.
The much-hyped waste collection programme of the Haritha Keralam Mission faces a crisis as people have stopped paying user fee to the Haritha Karma Sena (HKS) members assigned to collect waste. In their defence, the people are citing a comment made by the Chief Minister on ‘Naam Munnottu’ TV programme against charging the user fee.
With the people unwilling to cough up the money, local governing bodies are finding it difficult to get enough funds to pay the HKS members. As a result, the waste collection process has been dealt a severe blow across the state and it looks the activity has stopped for a while now.According to an official, local governing bodies have stopped collecting waste, including plastic, from houses as they don’t have enough money to pay the HKS members.
There are around 20,800 HKS members in the state. Of the 81 local governing bodies in Kannur district, the waste collection had been successfully going on in more than 50 panchayats and some of the municipalities. Since, it has stopped, people might burn the waste, including plastic, in public places or in their compounds itself, which will be harmful to the environment and the health of the people. When the Chief Minister made the comment, he was speaking against the government order regarding the collection of solid waste, including plastic, from houses. Page 17 of the government order regarding the collection of waste clearly says that citizens should pay an user fee for making use of the waste disposal system.
As a government order is there in connection with this, the Chief Minister’s comments make one wonder whether he was aware about the order or not.Local governing bodies who had appointed the HKS members are also reluctant to pay the remuneration from their own funds, as they are not allowed to use the funds for such purposes without a government order.
An official said that the viability gap fund (VGF) can be used when the user fee collected is not sufficient to pay the HKS workers. The Suchithwa Mission and the government had tried to turn this into a government order so that local bodies can use the VGF for such purposes. Though Local Administration Minister K T Jaleel had signed the draft copy, the order has not been issued till now. The order has been languishing on the desk of the Chief Minister’s development adviser for the past five months.