Mangaluru City Corporation will use the services of its mutli-purpose workers and valvemen to create awareness on segregating waste at source, Mayor Diwakar said here on Tuesday.
Speaking at a consultative meeting with councillors on waste segregation, he sought the cooperation of councillors to create awareness among people on segregating waste.
Commissioner of the corporation Akshy Sridhar said that the civic body will also use the services of junior engineers to supervise waste segregating operations in the city. The corporation will popularise composting of wet waste in houses to reduce the quantity of garbage being generated in the city, he said.
Some councillors told the meeting that Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt. Ltd. which collects and transports solid waste for the corporation is not collecting waste daily from some wards, especially those on the outskirts of the central business district area. Garbage is being collected in such wards once in three days. As per the contract with the civic body, the company should collect waste daily.
Replying to this, Environment Engineer of the corporation Madhu S. Manohar said that the company has told the civic body that it is facing the issue of maintenance of some of its vehicles due to delay in getting spare parts. The company was operating 84 vehicles for waste collection and transportation. Now, about eight of its vehicles are not operating due to maintenance issues. Hence, it is collecting waste in some wards once in three days.
In response, the Mayor said that in such a case the company should make alternative arrangements by hiring vehicles on its own to collect and transport waste. If not, it should outsource collection in such wards. Lack of availability of spare parts cannot be an excuse for stopping daily collection of waste.
Naveen R. D’Souza, a councillor, said that the civic body should collect all segregated waste daily. It should collect dry waste daily instead of once in a week that is on Fridays. If dry waste is collected only on Fridays, garbage will only pile up in apartments, he said.
Mr. D’Souza said that sanitary inspectors are not serious enough in monitoring waste segregation.
Another councillor Praveenchandra Alva said that the QR code system of monitoring waste segregation which has been implemented in a ward in the city on an experimental basis should be extended to all wards. It is to monitor whether solid waste has been collected from all houses and establishments or not.
Another councillor suggested that the corporation should make a short video on segregating waste at source and its importance and circulate it on social media to create awareness among people.
