Municipal Commissioner R. Sriramulu Naidu on Sunday asked all apartment dwellers and others to pay user charges promptly to facilitate the smooth collection of garbage in all the 50 wards of the fort city. He expressed concern over the resistance from the residents of apartments in various places though the charges were only Rs.3 per day.
“The educated families who live in apartments are supposed to cooperate with the civic body for the effective lifting of garbage every day from their doorstep. Unfortunately, only 40% of the residents out of the 650 apartments are paying charges regularly. The others should also pay promptly since the user charges are collected only to meet the rents of the 53 vehicles hired exclusively for garbage collection,” he said.
The user charge was only Rs.2 per day in slums and Rs.4 per day in commercial zones.
Mr. Sriramulu Naidu said that the civic body was paying the salaries of the sanitary staff from its own financial resources.
“People should also understand that the effective and scientific disposal of garbage is the responsibility of civic bodies as per the directive of the National Green Tribunal. While following the guidelines in a true spirit, we finalised plans for a scientific disposal of 2.50 lakh tonne garbage piled up in the dumping yard. So, people’s cooperation is essential for proper collection of garbage which ensures cleanliness and help in the prevention of diseases,” he added.