Garbage collection in Chandigarh may go in private hands

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, February 20

The operation and management of door-to-door garbage collection may go in private hands. The Municipal Corporation is considering two models for the upgrade of the existing waste processing plant. One of the proposals includes handing over the entire garbage collection as well as the waste plant upgrade and processing work to one agency.

“We are going to present the two models before the UT Adviser on February 23. If a proposal is okayed, it will be brought to the February 28 House meeting for approval,” said MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra.

The civic body chief said it was not about the door-to-door waste collection being run by an agency, but the broader aim was of better management of the city waste.

An official said if the proposal materialised, the infrastructure of the corporation such as two-bin vehicles could also be managed by the agency while waste collectors could work on an outsourcing basis.

The collectors, who earlier used to work independently operating through carts, had last year signed an MoU with the MC to work under the corporation through two-bin vehicles for a period of two years.

The proposal of handing over the operation to a private player has not gone down well with collectors. “If it is done, we are going to protest. It is not in sync with the MoU signed with us,” said Shamsher Lotiya, president of a door-to-door garbage collectors’ union. He said around 1,700 collectors were registered with the MC.

Meanwhile, even after over a year of the MC House clearing the agenda to upgrade the garbage processing plant through a private agency, the process is still on.

The IIT, Roorkee, had recommended setting up of a 500-tonne per day plant for the treatment of dry and wet waste. It found that all machines were already 12 years old, which is practically the lifespan of such machines.

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