Amritsar MC slaps Rs 10-lakh penalty on solid waste management firm

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 5

The Municipal Corporation (MC), Amritsar, imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Amritsar Municipal Solid Waste (AMSW), a solid waste management company, as workers of company found adding sand in the garbage to increase weight on Thursday. Apart from the penalty, the MC will pay only for the half of the garbage weight for Thursday.

The solid waste management company, AMSW, hired by the MC for waste disposal had come under scanner when its employees were spotted adding sand to the garbage to enhance its weight on Thursday. A local Congress leader Sarabjit Singh Latti had recorded a video of company employees and sent it to MC officials and Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu. Latti claimed that the company employees were adding sand in the garbage near the dairy complex on Jhabal Road. The workers reportedly claimed that they are doing this on the directions of higher officials of the firm to enhance the weight of garbage.

Mayor Karamajit Singh Rintu issued a notice to the company and also ordered an inquiry in this regard. The company was yet to submit its response.

The company was collecting garbage door-to-door from 75 wards of the city. According to information, the firm collects around 400 MT garbage daily and the MC pays them Rs 1,350 per tonne of waste.

The solid waste management was already under scanner for regular fire at the Bhagtanwala dumping site. The residents of Bhagtanwala alleged that the company set the garbage on fire instead of bioremediation as it is a costly process.