CHIKKAMAGALURU: The door-to-door garbage collection drive, launched by the Chikkamagaluru City Municipal Council (CMC) as part of the Swacch Chikkamagaluru initiative, seems to have taken a hit with thousands of households resisting the move.
The CMC has awarded the contract to collect garbage from all the 32 wards in the city to a firm owned by one Salim Pasha. The contractor is authorised to collect Rs 40 per month from each household and Rs 150 per month from commercial establishments. Residents are also given bags/containers for segregation of dry and wet waste. However, despite several appeals by ward representatives, about 9,000 of the 28,000 households are refusing to hand over waste or pay the stipulated amount.
The CMC authorities say that the residents have been issued several warnings.“People complain about neighbours throwing garbage on the roads. The contractor can’t force them to hand over the waste and pay the money,” said an official. The staff deployed for waste collection feel that the City Municipal Council should initiate stringent action against those who refuse to comply.
The garbage contractor has deployed 25 tipper autos across the city.“Every day, 50 employees collect garbage from 6 am to 3 pm. The lone compactor available with the CMC can take 14 tipper-loads at a time. Due to this, the other tipper autos have to wait till the compactor returns from the dump yard,”
he rued.
Reacting to this, CMC Commissioner Paramesh said that one more compactor will be purchased and notices will be issued to residents who are not complying with the door-to-door garbage collection drive.