COIMBATORE: After complaints were raised against several garbage disposal vehicle drivers of taking money from hotels, supermarkets and other commercial establishments and collecting bulk waste, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has decided to install GPS devices in the dump trucks to track their movement.
Social activists meanwhile demand that CCMC should take stringent action against drivers and sanitary workers who collect waste from Bulk Waste Generators (BWG), instead of collecting it from residential areas.
The civic body has been struggling for a long time to deal with the everyday garbage dumped by the people across the city due to the lack of resources available to them. With numerous sanitary workers retiring from their service in the past two months, the civic body has managed to fill only a few of them.
Similarly, as there are not enough garbage bins and dump trucks available with the CCMC, the officials are unable to dispose of the garbage from the streets on a regular basis. In view of this, the civic body has already floated a tender to procure 200 mini-trucks that are specially built to collect different wastes from the people in the residential areas. Currently, the CCMC has been operating a total of 426 mini-trucks and 62 dipper lorries across the city for waste disposal, said the sources.
Apart from them, the BWG that generate more than 100 kg of waste a day have to take care of their waste on their own. But a few of them have been illegally bribing the dump truck drivers and sanitary workers to collect wastes from their establishments, allege the activists.
“While the mini-trucks don’t arrive in residential areas regularly, we can see them during the late nights in front of commercial establishments to collect their bulk wastes,” said Vivin Saravan, a social activist, adding, “The waste from the commercial establishments is later dumped in the Vellalore dump yard. The civic body must take severe action against them.”
A few months ago, a similar incident took place in the city, after which former CCMC commissioner Raja Gopal Sunkara suspended temporary contract labourer Karthick, who was working as a driver of CCMC’s dump truck (TN 66 L 9498) and issued an indictment (Charge memorandum) to Sivakumar, the sanitary supervisor of wards 90 and 91.
Speaking to TNIE, CCMC Commissioner (incharge) Dr M Sharmila said a meeting was held with the sanitary inspectors of all the wards in the city a couple of days ago on this regard and the action that needs to be taken immediately.
“There are a total of six bulk waste handlers in the city. We have asked them to conduct a survey and submit a detailed report and list of the total number of BWGs in the city. Of them, three have identified a total of 830 BWG and the remaining three are yet to submit their reports,” she added.
“We are going to install GPS devices in all the dump trucks and mini trucks which will be tracked by ICCC (Integrated Command and Control Centre). Any deviation from the route will send alerts to the ICCC and we shall take action. Already fixed routes for two zones are completed. Identifying the fixed route for the other three zones are in progress and will be completed soon,” she concluded.