Chandigarh civic body to take control of door-to-door garbage collection

A special General House session of the Municipal Corporation (MC) of Chandigarh has passed a resolution to take over the door-to-door garbage collection work in the city under its own administrative control.

This follows a year-long stand-off with waste collectors who were opposed to the move claiming that they would be rendered jobless if the MC took over garbage collection. On the other hand, the MC asserted that without any legal binding the waste collectors were working inefficiently and waste segregation was also neglected.

The civic body has planned to provide waste collecting vehicles to the sanitary workers and give them employment without changing their present working zones. Some of the waste collectors will also work at the material recovery facilitation (MRF) centres that will be made instead of the Sehaj Safai Kendras. These MRF centres will be used to reduce the dumping of waste.

Henceforth, Chandigarh residents will no longer pay garbage collectors. Instead, they will be required to pay the fee either through their water bills directly to the civic body. Residents who fail to segregate waste will be penalised and pay additional charges in their water bill.

Each vehicle will collect garbage from 800 houses. The civic body will require at least 300 vehicles for the garbage collection at a cost of Rs 18 crore, reports The Times of India.

Picture Credit: Screenshot from Official Twitter Handle of Swacch Chandigarh