Thiruvananthapuram corporation accused of lobbying for private coompany innoculum

Thiruvananthapuram: Most wards in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation use a brand of innoculum which costs Rs 12.5/kg, even though, according to waste management experts, more cost-effective brands of innoculum are available. Many allege that this is the result of active lobbying. Service providers in the Corporation rely on Kerala University and two other private companies for innoculum. While the civic body does not officially recommend one innoculum as being more effective than the other, informally there are biases towards one of the two private companies, according to people in the field.

Officials have been discouraging the use of other kinds of innoculum, they say. Harithagramam, a service provider which caters to more than 15 wards, relies on one innoculum. A 10-kg packet of Kerala University innoculum costs Rs 80, but a kilogram lasts for three months, according to Subheesh S, technical lead, V-Care, a service provider.  “For one kilogram waste, about 10 gm innoculum and 100 gm saw dust or coir pith would be required. In order to measure the innoculum, we give a spoon,” he says. But he adds that the manufacturing ability of KU, an academic institution, has its limitations.

Corporation officials say that the price of KU innoculum increases, when it is mixed with coir pith or saw dust. However, V. Karthik, founder of the service provider Harithanagaram, says, “Good quality coir pith would cost '3-5/kg. A household would need way less than 300 gm of the KU innoculum. Even if we round off Rs 1.6 as Rs 2, in a month it would cost Rs 7.” The Corporation is planning to invite Expressions of Interest for a project in which it will buy innoculum and directly supply to service providers. In that case, the Technical Committee appointed to look into waste management will take a call on the quality of the innoculum. But experts say that a microbiologist, and an agricultural scientist should be there in the team which takes the final decision.