In an effort aimed at forcing the solid waste management contractor to comply with the contractual obligations, the Corporation has delayed payment under two components of the waste management scheme. For the past three months, the Corporation has not paid the money meant for processing and disposing waste to the Coimbatore Integrated Waste Management Company Private Limited, the contractor in-charge of waste management under the Rs. 100 crore solid waste management scheme, said Commissioner G. Latha.
The Corporation paid the contractor only the expenditure incurred under the transportation component because there was no problem as far as the transport of waste was concerned.
Ms. Latha said that the contractor ought to process the waste into compost and refuse derived fuel (RDF) and use the remaining waste in landfill. But the contractor had not done so.
It could not show proof for the compost it had prepared or the RDF it had produced, sources in the civic body said and added that the discrepancies came to light during a review meeting the Commissioner held a few months ago.
She had asked the contractor to comply with the norms or risk action on the part of the civic body.
As per the contract, the company had to segregate the degradable waste to turn it to compost for sale as manure.
Likewise, it ought to prepare RDF and also sell the same as fuel to companies that manufacture cement.
And it had to dump into landfill only the waste that got rejected. This way the quantity of untreated waste would get reduced and that would be easy to handle. Besides, there would not be the fear of the waste getting burnt in fire accidents.
The sources said that there were two other issues as well. The company was yet to furnish on a daily basis the reports sought by the Commissioner on vehicle movement, quantity of waste transported and the volume of waste segregated.
Plus, it also did not furnish compost quality report. The contractor had to get the quality of waste certified by a Ministry of Environment and Forests-accredited laboratory. The sources added that Corporation would clear the dues only after the contractor fulfilled the contractual obligations.
The Corporation ought to pay Rs. 800 for every tonne of garbage to the company. Fifty per cent of the money was for transportation and the rest for processing and disposal.
