Almost a week has passed since the domestic garbage generated from apartments and individual households in SBI Officers’ Colony was collected by sanitary workers of Tiruchi Corporation.
The residents, struggling to put up with the stench emanating from the piled up domestic waste, expected the visit of sanitary workers at least on Sunday. But, the wait for handing over the waste still continues.
“No garbage collector has visited our residential colony for the last five days. Garbage bins and baskets are overflowing. We cannot dump garbage on street as it would attract penalty,” says an apartment dweller in SBI Officer's Colony..
The issue was not confined just to residents of SBI Officers’ Colony. Several residents of Srirangam, Woraiyur and Thennur and extension areas also alleged irregular collection of garbage by sanitary workers.
After abolition of road side garbage bins in the city about four years ago in favour of door-to-door collection of domestic waste, the residents were asked to segregate the waste into bio-degradable and non-degradable and keep them in two separate baskets.
To habituate residents to the new practice, the Corporation distributed baskets through sponsors. After teething trouble, the system gradually became a regular practice. By deploying a light motor vehicle for each ward, the sanitary workers visited the households regularly to collect domestic waste.
At one point of time, the Corporation even introduced a QR code-enabled garbage collection and tracking system to improve the efficacy of the door-to door collection. Though there were complaints of poor coverage here and there, the system had started gaining momentum.
Now, the residents of several localities alleged that that the system had frittered away gradually due to irregular collection of domestic waste and the inefficient monitoring mechanism.
Though the daily collection of waste was still in force, many alleged that it was only on paper. There were areas where daily collection of waste was being undertaken. In several other areas, the sanitary workers visited once in three to four days to collect garbage.
Kalavathi Shanmugam, vice president, Exnora, Tiruchi, said that except some prominent areas, the efficiency of the system had, in general, taken a severe hit. The residents of interior and extended areas had been hit hard due to erratic door to door collection. The time was high for review of the overall functioning of the system. Steps should be taken to review the system in each and every ward.
