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Garbage collection grinds to a halt
EVEN AS the City grapples with a suspected Chikungunya pandemic, sanitation tasks in three municipal zones ground to a halt on Monday.
EVEN AS the City grapples with a suspected Chikungunya pandemic, sanitation tasks in three municipal zones ground to a halt on Monday.
Garbage collection vehicles in Bilawali, Stadium and Saket zones stayed off the roads today after the authorised filling station near Dawa Bazaar refused to provide diesel until the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) cleared previous dues.
Rattled by the petrol pump owner’s stand, Mayor-in-Council member in-charge of Health Rajendra Rathore directed officials to obtain a bare minimum amount of fuel from the IMC workshop so that at least skeletal garbage collection services could be undertaken.
The salvage attempt, however, came a cropper after employees refused to part with any diesel without the express permission of workshop in-charge Additional Municipal Commissioner Kumar Purshottam, who is currently out of town.
A desperate Rathore then got in touch with Municipal Commissioner Vinod Sharma, following which a little diesel was finally made available to the Health Department vehicles.
By the time the fuel was made available, though, the time for garbage collection rounds was well past. As a result large amounts of refuse lay piled in all three zones, especially in Saket, where mounds of rotting garbage lay strewn right on the middle of the road.
It wasn’t only garbage collection that suffered, though. Many IMC officials were also forced to make a beeline to other petrol pumps for getting their official vehicles filled after they were shooed away by the Dawa Bazaar petrol pump attendants.
According to sources, the Corporation owes the petrol pump over Rs 10 lakh in unpaid diesel bills. The owner reportedly petitioned the Municipal Commissioner for payments and even met him personally several times. When this failed to yield the desired results the owner instructed employees not to provide any diesel to IMC vehicles.
Although the decision was made on Sunday the matter came to the Corporation’s notice only when the civic body reopened for work after the weekend today. When contacted Health in-charge Rajendra Rathore admitted that the vehicles were refused diesel by the pump attendants. He, however, said normal garbage collection services would resume by tomorrow. “We have asked the pump owner for additional time after which the dues will be paid in full,” said the MiC member.
