Trash contract in Mangalore has scrap value

Conditions set by MCC are hardly implemented by garbage collectors

One of the tender conditions of the Mangalore City Corporation for civic contractor is to ensure that wastes are segregated into wet and dry at the doorstep.

The contract insists that wet wastes from residential areas should be collected daily between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and would have to be deposited to the metal containers placed at locations earmarked by the civic body. The dry wastes have to be collected once in a week between noon and 2 p.m.

It added: “…household hazardous wastes will be collected separately while collecting dry wastes and dumped safely in the area allotted in the landfill…”

It says that recyclable waste should be separated from the dry waste and sold to an authorised shop with trade license from the corporation. The amount gained from such sale would be the property of the contractor.

The bulk waste has to be collected from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The conditions continue to remain only on paper.

Residents don’t pay

The contractors, who have accepted the conditions in the first place, now offer many reasons for the failure to abide by them. Dayanand, a contractor, said that the Rs. 30 monthly users’ fee fixed by the civic body is not manageable. It should be a minimum of Rs. 50 per month.

He said that many residents refused to pay the fee and said that they themselves would dump in roadside bins. Hence contractors’ focused on collecting the trash from streets where people paid.

Rehman, another contractor, said that contractors deployed workers only on localities where people paid the fee.

‘ People failing scheme’

Ajith Kumar Hegde S., Commissioner, Mangalore City Corporation, said that unless people segregated waste and gave it to the collectors it would be difficult for officials to make contractors adhere to all conditions.

He said that once waste collectors picked mixed garbage from a house it would be difficult to segregate it on the spot. The onus was on “us” (people) to segregate waste.

The Commissioner said that the civic body would take up more awareness programmes to enlighten people in this regard.