E-Paper
Ludhiana MC issues warning to company tasked with solid waste management
The municipal corporation (MC) has issued a last warning to officials of A2Z Group, the private company which has been tasked with handling solid waste management
The municipal corporation (MC) has issued a last warning to officials of A2Z Group, the private company which has been tasked with handling solid waste management in the city, to improve their working.
Mayor Balkar Sandhu and MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal conducted a meeting with the officials of the A2Z Group at the Mayor’s camp office on Friday. The officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) were also present in the meeting.
The MC officials said that apart from its failure in processing over 1,100 metric tonnes of garbage generated in the city on a daily basis, the company had also failed to lift garbage from secondary dumping points in time.
Out of the total 27 vehicles deployed for the lifting of garbage, only 16 have been put to work. The company officials claimed that the remaining vehicles need repairs.
The officials said that a certain period would be given to the company to improve its working failing which the MC might terminate their contract.
Joint commissioner Swati Tiwana said, “The mayor and the MC commissioner have given strict instructions to the company to improve the working otherwise the MC will be forced to look for an alternative. The MC will be left with no other option but to terminate the contract.”
The monitoring committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has been tightening the noose around the MC and the A2Z Group over the solid waste management issue. Recently, the NGT had asked the MC to deposit Rs 22 lakh as a bank guarantee in favour of PPCB for their failure in dealing with the solid waste and delay in upgrading sewer treatment plants. The PPCB has also encashed Rs 10 lakh bank guarantee which was submitted by the A2Z Group in the past.
PPCB to grant consent to operate RDF plant
After the intervention of the MC, the PPCB has agreed to give consent to the A2Z Group for operating the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant but the company will have to give an undertaking that the plant would be run at full capacity and no garbage would be dumped at the main dumpsite of the MC at Tajpur road.
Earlier on August 21, the PPCB had rejected the consent application submitted by A2Z company to run the RDF plant at the main dumpsite due to anomalies and the operations at the plant were put to halt by the company on August 26.
Owing to which, the waste generated in the city has been getting accumulated at the main dumpsite of the MC. As per officials, around 16 lakh tonnes of legacy waste is already dumped at the site.
