The Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) has tightened the noose around door-to-door garbage collectors in the city with the House on Monday approving the agenda regarding a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with them. Under the new rules, strict penalties have been put in place for garbage collectors for non-compliance of rules.
As per the new MoU, biometric attendance of garbage collectors is a must and the collector will be required to collect garbage from all floors without asking for money from the dwellers.
The new MoU has been framed with the MC aiming to become a seven-star rated garbage-free city and the cleanest city in the country, in the Swachh Survekshan (cleanliness survey) conducted annually by the Ministry of Housing and urban affairs.
During the House meeting, various councillors – both of the BJP and Congress – raised a number of issues related to garbage collection, which were duly addressed by the medical officer of health (MOH).
Currently, the MC provides door-to-door waste collection services to 2.4 lakh households (100 % households) in Chandigarh. One of the major changes is mandatory segregation and collection of five types of waste – dry, wet, sanitary, domestic and hazardous. The collector is required to intimate the area sanitary inspector about the residential unit which is not segregating waste as per rules.
The MC had signed an MoU with 926 door-to-door garbage collectors individually, from January 1, 2021, to December 12, 2022. The said MoU has been extended time and again ever since.
{{/usCountry}}The MC had signed an MoU with 926 door-to-door garbage collectors individually, from January 1, 2021, to December 12, 2022. The said MoU has been extended time and again ever since.
{{/usCountry}}The new rules ensure that garbage is collected from every floor of the residential unit, addressing persistent complaints from residents, especially the elderly on upper floors, who struggle to bring down their waste. The reforms also propose a biometric attendance system to ensure timely and consistent service and introduce penalties for non-compliance, such as skipping households, failing to wear uniforms or ID cards, or demanding money from residents.