Three urban local bodies which send their solid waste for processing at Mangaluru City Corporation’s compost plant at Pachchanady owe the corporation ₹ 1.36 crore as solid waste processing fee till this September, according to Commissioner of the corporation Akshy Sridhar.
Of these, Ullal City Municipality owes ₹ 94.62 lakh, Bantwal Town Municipality will have to pay ₹ 39.66 lakh and Kotekar Town Panchayat owes ₹ 1.50 lakh, he said. The corporation charges them ₹ 500 per tonne as the processing fee.
The council of the corporation in its meeting on Wednesday decided to write to these three civic bodies asking them to pay their dues. The council also decided to stop receiving their solid waste at Pachchanady after three months and that it will accept only segregated waste till the next three months from them.
Commissioner of Ullal City Municipality Rayappa told The Hindu that there is no suitable land within the jurisdiction of the Ullal City Municipality to set up a compost plant and to have a landfill site. Hence, the municipality will have no other way but to send its waste to Pachchanady.
He said that at present, Ullal is sending only wet waste, about five tonnes daily, to Pachchanady. It is sending chicken waste to a processor at Baikampady and the dry waste is being handed over to a non-government organisation.
Mr. Rayappa said that the processing fee dues to the corporation will be paid by the end of this year.
Chief Officer of Bantwal Town Municipality Leena Britto said that the government gave 8.50 acres of land to the civic body for its solid waste management in March this year. At present, dry waste is being stored there.
The civic body has taken steps for processing its other waste at the allotted land. It has invited bids for setting up a processing facility on the allotted land.
