Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) will soon take up solid waste management, requiring residents to segregate wastes at the household level.
SCB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sujatha Gupta informed the Board during a meeting on Monday that households would be provided recyclable coloured bags for segregation of waste which would be collected by SCB staff.
Such coloured bins will also be set up in every residential colony. Waste-collection staff would set up and maintain a composter in every colony to generate compost from kitchen wastes that would later be auctioned. “After a visit to Goa’s capital Panaji where we witnessed a model similar to what we proposed in Secunderabad Cantonment is successfully working, we decided to take up the scheme. We will carry out operations with our staff immediately,” Ms. Gupta informed during the board meeting where Board’s President Brigadier A.S. Negi was present along with special invitees - TDP parliamentarian C.H. Malla Reddy and Cantonment legislator G. Sayanna. Incidentally, Monday’s board meeting has been convened four months after the last one in October and the first after the recently held elections to the civilian wards.
During the meeting, officials also discussed property tax collections, water supply, encroachments and demolitions. The SCB has set a target of Rs. 26 crore from property tax for this financial year ending March 31 and has already realised Rs. 18 crore. It was also mentioned that the Begumpet airport authorities owe the SCB Rs. 9 crore property tax payments accumulated over the last 12 years.
The elected representatives contended demolitions being taken up by the SCB and asked the latter to provide some relief by way of regularisations to which the CEO informed that regularisations are only possible within the purview of law.
New board members
Monday’s SCB board meeting was not without disturbance. Some of the newly elected board members, who are yet to take oath, initially objected to the meeting but later participated as ‘observers’. SCB CEO informed the press that there is no word on gazette notification announcing list of elected members, which is a requirement for convening the first the board meeting with the newly elected members and selection of the vice-president.
