Tax sop fails to make sweeping change in Kalyan

Even after exempting five per cent on property tax for a year for residents living in housing societies with zero-waste, not a single society has taken advantage

Even after exempting five per cent on property tax for a year for residents living in housing societies with zero-waste, not a single society has taken advantage of the move, according to Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC).

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“The exemption was introduced to encourage residents to dispose waste by segregating and processing it on their building premises. This will reduce the amount of garbage sent to the dumping ground,” said an official of solid waste management department, KDMC, on condition of anonymity.

Residents, however, said they do not know how to carry out waste segregation and develop a processing unit inside their complexes.

“Introduction of the exemption is laudable, but there should be more awareness about it. Who will teach the residents how to process the waste and dispose it off? Instead of just announcing the property tax exemption, the civic body should have focused on educating the people,” said Manisha Pathare, 40, a resident of Khadakpada Kalyan (West).

Around four months ago, the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) had announced the exemption for housing societies segregating their waste, processing and disposing it within the society, without giving it to the civic body for disposal.

Around 600 metric tonnes of non- segregated waste is dumped at Adharwadi dumping ground.

“No residential building has adopted the zero-waste disposal method,” said the official.

Refuting residents’ claims of not conducting waste segregating awareness programmes, the civic body said that they have conducted the programmes at several housing societies.

“We have four NGO’s associated with us who help us carry out the organise training programmes in housing societies. We are educating residents so that the city becomes cleaner. They, however, do not take it forward owing to their internal conflicts in the societies,” said the official.

KDMC’s failure to dispose of solid waste properly had attracted the attention of the Bombay high court in 2015.

Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Dombivli-based resident Kaustubh Gokhale, the HC had restrained the civic body from approving fresh proposals for constructions in its jurisdiction.

The move led to a loss of ₹100 crore for the civic body in 2015. However, in April 2016, the year-long ban on new constructions was lifted.

The then civic commissioner finalised two new sites — Umbarde and Barave — where solid waste could be scientifically dumped and processed.

Residents blamed the civic body for the waste segregation mess.

“I have seen workers mix the segregated waste many times in my building. When I enquired about it, they said the vehicle has not arrived from KDMC or there is no space in the garbage collecting bins. So, if this is the state why would residents want to segregate the waste on their own,” said Sujata Mahadik, 45, a resident of Guru Atman residency, Gauripada, Kalyan.

The members of Jagruk Nagrik group of Kalyan recently started creating awareness on waste segregation in housing societies.

The group has conducted sessions at five societies — Royal Residency, Adharwadi chowk, Kashi Vishwanath, Lal Chowki, Godrej Hill and Ajmera height near Yogidham.

“KDMC is training people to collect segregated waste and not how to do the segregation effectively. There is a vast difference. So far, none of the societies are claiming the five per cent rebate and there is no proper communication by the civic authority,” said Sajita Nair, member of the group, who conducts training sessions in housing societies.

“People will segregate and dispose effectively when they have a thorough knowledge about it. The civic body is not doing enough in training residents,” she said.