The Bhopal Municipal Corporaiton (BMC) is charging Rs360 per year from every house owner in the name of door-to-door garbage collection. However, this service is unavailable in almost 90 per cent of the city.
While talking to 'The Pioneer' BMC Additional Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said that a charge of Rs30 per month for door-to-door collection is being charged and it is said that if residents are not receiving the garbage collection services reversal is done and those areas where garbage collection service charges have been charged and the garbage is not collected it is purely incidental.
Initially Kumar accepted that the services are not available across all the wards and to all the residents under the BMC but he denied that those areas which are not provided with the services are charged. At present under the door-to-door garbage collection services more than two lakh households are covered and in-charge of door-to-door service Rakesh Sharma said that he monitors around 80,000 houses on a daily basis but still there are places which are suffering from garbage problems as these services are not provided to several households.
In the 70 wards under the 14 zones of the city in which waste management is handled by the BMC, a contrast could be quite visible in the different areas of the city. It becomes difficult to accept that the two different areas of the city belong to the same city as one area would have huge dumps of garbage and filthy areas would be witnessed while the other area would be clean and clear with proper waste disposal system.
Rakesh Singh who owns a 600 sq ft plot was denied a no-dues certificate as he refused to pay garbage collection charges. He said that there is a huge heap of garbage on the plot and for the past 3-4 years it has been a dumping ground for the locals and now the BMC is asking for garbage collection charges.
Bhola Tiwari, a BMC clerk posted at ward office in Punjabi Bagh, was not interested in the services but was keen on collection of charges. He said that after the payment, a receipt would be provided to the house owner and for around two years the services are provided and are functioning smoothly. Door-to-door garbage collection services by the BMC was started around two years ago and BMC has imposed a monthly charge of Rs30 for garbage collection.
On asking how one could avail the services he said that around 7 am 'daroga' would come and he has to be updated regarding the problem and they are not able to help.
When he was asked regarding cancellation or reversal of charges he bluntly replied that no-dues certificate would not be issued and showed receipts of paid charges of locals of different colonies.
Radhyeshyam Jain, a resident of A-sector New Ashoka Garden, said that in the past two years he had not seen a collection vehicle and still there is a pending bill of Rs744 which includes a penalty of Rs24 at the ward office with Bhola Tiwari.
In-charge of door-to-door Rakesh Sharma said that an annual charge of Rs360 has been levied for door-to-door garbage collection services and said that he would arrange for and check if the garbage is collected from the vicinity or not. He accepted that it is possible that the door-to-door collection vehicles might not be collecting garbage from their area and coordinate with the officials.
Health Officer of Ward 65 Rajesh Jain expressed ignorance and assured that he will look into the matter but to one's surprise he was not aware that the garbage collection vehicles are not making rounds in the area.
Earlier in the year 2007 door-to-door garbage collection system was started with 25 cycle rickshaws and a few auto-rickshaws in the ward numbers 61 and 62. When the programme was started it was managed by two NGOs but they failed to run the programme and it collapsed after which the BMC started to manage the programme.