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Patiala MC to decide fate of door-to-door garbage collection project
The municipal corporation (MC) of Patiala is all set to decide the fate of its door-to-door garbage collection and segregation project by the coming week.
The municipal corporation (MC) of Patiala is all set to decide the fate of its door-to-door garbage collection and segregation project by the coming week.
The project was shelved after the MC’s General House passed resolution to scrap it.
Taking a serious note of the poor performance and multiple complaints against the much-hyped project, the councillors agreed to the proposal of scrapping tenders for during the House meeting in September this year.
The civic body had awarded tenders for the garbage collection project to a Noida-based company, Hari Bhari Recyclable Waste Management Private Limited, in September last year.
However, the project, which was inaugurated with much fanfare by Congress leader in June this year, has failed to receive the desired response as the Noida-based company could not fully implement the plan.
MC joint commissioner Lal Vishwas said that after the General House’s approval to scrap the project, the civic body gave the company last chance to give clarification on its performance before issuing documents related to termination of the work agreement.
“The company has submitted its reply. The company’s response will be tabled before the House so that final decision can be taken on future of the project,” he said.
He added that the company was performing below par as the MC was receiving multiple complaints from residents regarding garbage not being collected on daily basis, besides fleecing.
“We had given repeated warnings to the agency concerned to improve their performance, however, no change was noticed,” the joint commissioner said.
In the absence of a solid waste management plant, the door-to-door garbage collection system was one of the main proposals initiated by the Patiala MC to make the Royal City litter-free.
However, the company hired to do the job has courted controversies due to its “poor planning, mismanagement and fleecing” at the six wards (34, 16, 39, 40, 42 and 58), where the door-to-door project was being carried out on trial basis.
Residents of these wards complained that they were arbitrarily charged ₹100-200 per month against the stipulated charges of ₹15-50 per month (according to area of the residential unit).
Moreover, instead of covering specific areas under the project in a phased manner, the company had started collecting garbage from random areas in a haphazard manner and without any planning.
