THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Inordinate delay in payments from local bodies for scientifically disposing of tonnes of rejects collected by the Haritha Karma Sena from households and commercial establishments across the state has landed the Clean Kerala Company Ltd (CKCL) in a deep financial crisis.
It is learned that the local bodies owe around Rs 30 crore to CKCL for the transportation and scientific handling of tonnes of reject waste generated in the state. According to estimates, per month Haritha Karma Sena is collecting and handing over around 3,000 tonnes of rejects from across the state.
As many as 40 service providers from the state having tie-up with cement factories located in other states have been roped in for handling the rejects by the CKCL. An official source told TNIE that the delay in payment will soon hit the movement of rejects.
“The service providers who are dealing with the rejects are mostly startups. Tonnes of rejects are transported to cement factories and all of them are based in other states. These startup service providers have hired GPS-enabled vehicles for transporting rejects. If we don’t pay them the cost of transportation and the fee they need to pay the cement factories, the movement of rejects from the state will be affected adversely. We don’t have our own funds to give them the dues and we are tied up financially. Some of the dues are more than a year old,” said an official.
Since the fire outbreak at the dumpsites at the Brahmapuram plant, the quantity of collection and segregation has gone up exponentially burdening the service providers and CKCL. Ernakulam and Thrissur districts owe pending dues to the tune of over Rs 3 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively to CKCL. It is learned that the Haritha Karma Sena is handing over around 5,000 tonnes of segregated waste per month to CKCL, which has entered into an agreement with more than 70 per cent of local bodies in the state for scientific handling of non-biodegradable waste.
“The number of loads has gone up and this is putting pressure on all stakeholders. We believe this is part of the transition and we are taking efforts to address this issue. We have given directions to the local bodies to release the dues immediately and we will follow it up to ensure the funds are handed over,” said additional chief secretary Saradha Muraleedharan, LSG Department.
She said that the coverage of waste collection has gone up and efforts will be taken to strengthen the system. She said that the CKCL needs to bring in more resources to ensure smooth and timely transportation of waste.
“We have been clearing waste dumps from public spaces and legacy dumpsites and there is pressure on the forward linkages as the quantity has gone up drastically. We need to rope in more resources to make the system smooth and we are trying to devise strategies to streamline all this,” Saradha Muraleedharan added.