VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) will collect user charges from the residents and commercial establishments from July as per the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 for waste generation, its collection and safe disposal. Initially, the civic body has started collecting the user charges from the residents in six divisions-4, 10, 27, 36, 39 and 42 in three Assembly segments identified to conduct a special sanitation drive on a pilot basis.
VMC Commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh told TNIE that in September 2020, the Corporation had decided to collect user charges from the households and commercial establishments in the city. However, due to various reasons the proposal did not materialise so far. The concept of collecting the user charge is to inculcate a self discipline among the households to segregate the generated wet and dry wastes and handover the same to the sanitation workers. A user fee of Rs 30 would be collected from slum areas and Rs 120 from non slum areas of the city, he said.
In case, the households handover the waste to the sanitation workers without any segregation, an additional Rs 100 would be collected as per a resolution adopted by the Municipal Council on February 2, 2020. The user charge would be collected at doorsteps of the households. Three options are being explored for mode of payment such as providing manual receipt, UPI payments and QR code scanners. Proposals are under consideration to provide an option of paying the user fee within three to six months, he informed.Venkatesh further said, the collected user charges will be used for the welfare of sanitation workers and purchase of equipment required for garbage collection.
Besides that, the Corporation has also planned to distribute Green (Wet), Blue (Dry) and Red (harmful wastes) bins for the 3.2 lakh households to segregate waste generated in their premises separately. A total of 10 lakh bins will be distributed to the households. The distribution of coloured bins has commenced at the six model divisions on Saturday. Apart from that, the VMC is also purchasing 220 auto-rickshaws for segregating waste from households to further improve sanitation standards under its ambit.
These auto-rickshaws, equipped with GPS tracking facility and two cameras, will help the public health department officials track them in six divisions (4, 10, 27, 36, 39 and 42 divisions) on a pilot basis, the Commissioner concluded.Meanwhile, Taxpayers Association Secretary MV Anjaneyulu has opposed the VMC’s decision of collecting a user charge of Rs 120 per month from the households in the city from next month. The collection and disposal of garbage is part of public health and the State government has to provide funds for the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the State. Without providing funds, the government is collecting user charges for garbage segregation from households which is objectionable, he alleged.
