HYDERABAD: Residents and sanitary workers are finding fault with the Secunderabad Cantonment Board’s (SCB) new proposal to implement the door-to-door collection of garbage by charging Rs 100 from colonies and Rs 50 from slums. In an effort to provide relief from the garbage menace in the cantonment, the board had launched 15 Swachh auto tippers last month to collect waste from doorsteps in Bowenpally area on a pilot basis.
The existing collection system proved to be haphazard and resulted in severe cleanliness issues in residential areas. This led to the SCB opting to follow the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) model where private individuals collect garbage and deposit it at dumping yards.
The tippers, each assigned with outsourced workers – a driver and two collectors - are responsible for daily garbage collection from households. However, this has not gone down well with the existing sanitary staff who had been collecting garbage at a monthly fare of Rs 40-50 from households.
The new proposal was being opposed for potentially putting financial burden on the residents and there was also a chance of the board periodically revising the collection charges, said T. Satish Gupta, a social activist.
In the last few days, the garbage collection has been stopped in several areas by the workers who are protesting the proposal. B. Tirupatayya, a sanitary worker of ward-5, said the new project would essentially deal a blow to the livelihoods of around 300 families.
Sanki Ravinder Babu of Cantonment Vikas Manch said, “The SCB authorities had launched the project with good intentions, but there are issues in the way it is being implemented.”
SCB sanitary inspector A. Mahender, however, said nothing had been concretely decided on extending it to all the areas. “We are yet to decide on how to go ahead with the project,” he said.
