Waste collection agency not following norms: Opposition

AURANGABAD: The opposition in Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has demanded action against the private waste collection agency, P Gopinath Reddy, alleging that it has failed to carry out waste collection on the terms and conditions of the agreement.
In a letter written to the municipal commissioner, leader of opposition in AMC Sarita Arun Borde said that the agency is collecting mixed waste across the city, which is a violation of the agreement that it be segregated.
The AMC privatised the waste collection service in February. In the seven-year agreement with the agency, the civic body agreed to pay around Rs 1,900 per tonne for collecting waste from doorsteps and unloading it to the waste processing sites. Currently, the agency is collecting waste in zones 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 while the AMC collects it in zones 5 and 6.
“The agency was supposed to engage 300 rickshaws of its own for the waste collection but it has failed to do so. In addition, the AMC provided the agency 60-70 rickshaws without the approval of the general body. However, the work is still not up to the mark. The rickshaws do not have separate bins for domestic biomedical waste as mandated in the agreement,” Borde stated in the letter.
The opposition leader stated that instead of door-to-door collection, the waste is being thrown on roads and the staff of the agency is collecting the waste from the dumping points created on roadsides.
Borde expressed doubts on the weighing of the waste while stating that the agency is using its own mechanism to weigh it. “The agency is inflating the weight so as to earn more money because it is being paid on per tonne basis,” she claimed.
She said that the agency has not mended its ways even after receiving a show-cause notice. “Hence, the administration should act upon it and immediately stop its payment for violating the terms and conditions.”
Responding to this, head of solid waste management cell of AMC, Nandkishore Bhombe, said that after realising that that waste is being mixed, the agency is being monitored at four levels.
“I have deputed civic staff on vehicles, on secondary collection points, at the weighing location and at waste processing unit at Chikalthana so that waste reaches the unit in segregated form,” he said, denying that there are any discrepancies in weighing.
Bhombe said that the agency has 230 rickshaws of its own and the civic body has provided 98 such vehicles, but this is as per the contract.