PMC extends contract of SWaCH by two months, administration fears slip in cleanliness ranking

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has extended the contract of SWaCH, a non-profit responsible for door-to-door waste collection in the city, by another two months

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has extended the contract of SWaCH, a non-profit responsible for door-to-door waste collection in the city, by another two months.

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However, the administration has warned that if SWaCH will continue its work, it will affect the ranking of PMC in Swach Survekshan, a cleanliness competition conducted by the centre every year.

While PMC renews the contract with Swach every five years, it ended in December 2020. Due to Covid-19, there was no general body meeting taking place and hence the decision was pending but it was passed in a general body meeting on Wednesday.

Covering around 8.5 lakh properties in the city, SWaCH gets ₹4.5 to ₹5 crore from residents every month in addition to ₹2.5 to ₹3 crore paid annually by PMC as supervision fees. However, there are numerous complaints from corporators and some citizens are against SWaCH workers for not lifting the garbage properly.

Based on the complaints of corporators, the PMC standing committee was earlier pursing to call bids of other agencies for fair competition in the collection and segregation of garbage in the city.

Shiv sena party leader Prithviraj Sutar had written a letter to PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar opposing the appointment of SWaCH once again.

However, the non-profit presented to city mayor Murlidhar Mohol a letter with signatures of over 100 corporators and more than one lakh residents in its support.

On Wednesday, the standing committee gave an extension for two months when the administration has mentioned effect on PMC Swach Survekshan if Swach stops the work.

PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar also made a reference to the threat of affecting Swach Survekshan while extending the contract with SwaCH. While giving an extension, the standing committee mentioned in the meeting that the process of calling tenders from other agencies will go on if the committee finds the work done by Swach unsatisfactory.

Kunal Khemnar, PMC additional municipal commissioner said, “The Central government’s Swachh Survekshan is going on. It may be affected if SWaCH is going to get the contract again. We have mentioned this in the standing committee proposal.”

Ganesh Bidkar, leader of the house of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in PMC said, “We are against Swach organization. However, the organization should have to sort out citizen complaints and improve the system and clear loopholes in the system.”

Opposing the privatisation of the waste collection system, SWaCH representatives had issued a statement. It stated that SWaCH is an extension of the PMC’s solid waste management (SWM) department. Informal waste-pickers own SWaCH and provide waste collection services to citizens against direct user fees. In fact, it was established by the PMC in 2007 in line with state government directives in 2002 to integrate informal waste-pickers and pull them out of poverty and promote sustainable waste management.

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PMC general body meeting gave approval to erect a saffron flag at the Sinhagad fort, worth ₹1 crore on Wednesday in the online general body meeting.

PMC had made budgetary provisions for it and all parties gave approval to the proposal in general body meeting. Last month, the standing committee had given a nod to install the saffron flag at Sinhagad