Residents of Housing societies in Wakad held a meeting with the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) officials on Sunday to discuss the garbage collection issue. In July, the PCMC officials stopped collecting bulk wet waste and issued show notices to over 20 housing societies in Wakad, the officials said.
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Cooperative Housing Societies Federation (PCCHSF) members held the meeting with the PCMC health officials from the ‘D’ ward. During the meeting, the civic officials informed that garbage collection services would be immediately restored to the societies where it was recently discontinued.
According to officials, it is mandatory to segregate wet and dry waste by housing societies and commercial establishments generating more than 100kgs of waste daily as per the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. All housing societies generating bulk waste have to take necessary action regarding the disposal of biodegradable waste through composting, biomethanation or other technologies. However, the PCMC started implementing the rule in August 2019, said the citizens.
Dattatraya Deshmukh, president of PCCHSF said there is no coordination between the Building Permission and Health Department of PCMC, which is the reason behind the inconvenience faced by citizens.
“The developers were given an Occupancy Certificate without even providing the facility to process the wet waste by the Building Permission department and the health department is taking action against the citizens. The housing societies which have OC before August 2019 should be exempted from the rule,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“The developers were given an Occupancy Certificate without even providing the facility to process the wet waste by the Building Permission department and the health department is taking action against the citizens. The housing societies which have OC before August 2019 should be exempted from the rule,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The meeting was attended by representatives of the following societies—Nisarg Pooja, Pristine Grandeur, Sanskruti Phase 3, Omega Paradise, Platinum Tower and Costa Rica amongst others.
“The PCMC has agreed to our demand and has decided to take action against societies who are generating wet waste in bulk and not processing the waste and still taking tax benefit for it,” Deshmukh added.
A senior official from PCMC, on anonymity, said, “Societies where garbage lifting was recently discontinued, it would be restored immediately. Tentative timings of the collection would be decided mutually. However, it would be the responsibility of society to keep the garbage bins ready at the arrival time of the vehicle and carefully segregate wet, dry, and hazardous waste.”