E-Paper
PMC won’t budge on decision to not pickup waste from bulk generators
In the background of next year’s civic elections, political parties have raised strong objection on the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)’s decision to not pick up garbage from bulk waste generators
In the background of next year’s civic elections, political parties have raised strong objection on the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)’s decision to not pick up garbage from bulk waste generators.
After the objection, the PMC has decided to only impose a fine and give some more time to make arrangements to bulk waste generators.
For the past year, the PMC has been creating awareness and warning bulk generators including big residential societies, government, and private establishments to make arrangements to process their own wet waste.
In December 2020, the PMC solid waste department set a deadline of March 31, 2021for bulk generators to make arrangements or set up a system to process garbage within their premises.
As per the data of the solid waste management department, there are a total of 1,403 bulk waste generators. The number of residential societies is more in comparison to the commercial establishments.
However, the PMC has not initiated strict action on bulk waste generators after the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena’s objections.
The MVA parties warned PMC that if the civic body stops picking up wet waste, garbage will be dumped at the doorstep of BJP office bearers.
Aba Bagul, Congress party leader said, “It is the duty of the administration to pick up, transport and dispose of garbage. It cannot be denied. We will conduct an agitation against the administration and BJP office bearers.”
Prithiviraj Sutar, Sena leader said, “In the solid waste management department’s policy, there is no such provision or action mentioned to stop picking up garbage. The PMC is not able to process or run garbage processing plants in the city. Now, they are pressurizing societies to set processing plants. Most of the societies don’t have enough space; the PMC should give more time and find a solution to this kind of problem because setting up a plant was not mandatory to societies before 2002. We are against this decision,” he added.
Ganesh Bidkar, BJP leader of house in PMC said, “The PMC has not started any action on societies till date. We will discuss with the administration on this decision.”
Kunal Khemnar, PMC’s additional municipal commissioner said, “Due to the Covid-19 situation, we have decided to impose a fine on bulk waste generators and give more time to make arrangements of processing garbage.”
He further said, “We have sorted only 3,000 establishments. It is not for the entire city. It is a very small chunk compared to the city population. We are following policy and government directives which were passed by local representatives. Another thing, we are ready to cooperate with societies to sort out their problems but, they should have to approach us. The bulk generators should appoint a private agency to process wet garbage. The PMC is ready to pick up dry garbage, but the PMC will not pick up garbage from bulk generators after March 31, 2021 and impose a fine as per law. However, we are concentrating on the commercial establishments.”
