MADURAI: Residents of the city have been complaining of poor solid waste management by the contractor fixed by the Madurai city corporation. Deputy Mayor T Nagarajan experienced it first-hand as he waited nearly three hours for sanitation workers to arrive and clear waste that had not been removed from the Madurai Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) for 10 days.
According to sources, regular waste from the GRH is cleared once in three days. But for the last 10 days, it was not collected despite hospital authorities lodging a complaint with the contractor, Ourland. The news circulated on social media on Friday, and prompted deputy mayor Nagarajan to visit the hospital without informing officials.
Information about Nagarajan’s inspection reached the contractor and workers arrived there, three hours later, to remove the waste. The incident prompted him to publicly criticise the contractor, raising fresh questions about the firm’s performance and the city’s waste-management negligence.
Nagarajan told TNIE, “The firm has been showing negligence in handling waste. They are citing reasons that the GRH comes under bulk waste generator category and hence should make its own arrangements to dispose of waste, not by the corporation. I contacted the contractor and sanitation officials over the phone to address the issue.”
Officials of Ourland refused to speak to the media about the delay in clearing the waste in the city. Sources said two earthmovers and a large tipper truck were deployed to clear the waste. The deputy mayor monitored the operation till the end.
The incident has once again turned the spotlight on the waste-collection system, with officials hinting that repeated failures by the contractor may lead to further action.