Visakhapatnam: Corporators and leaders of the alliance parties are making a bid at the upcoming GVMC Council meeting on September 10 to stop the system of ‘user charge’ for garbage collection. They feel the earnings of over seven crore on this count can be avoided. This was an election pledge of the Telugu Desam-led alliance in the recent general elections.
Corporators said proposals are being drafted for consideration at the Council meeting next week. The introduction of a tax for garbage collection by the YSRC government had raised protests from the public. The alliance leaders took note and vowed during the elections to revoke the tax if they won power.
Curiously, YSRC floor leader in the council, Banala Satya Surya Srinivasa Rao, submitted a petition to mayor Golagani Hari Venkata Kumari, seeking cancellation of the user charge. The mayor agreed to list this in the meeting’s agenda, by way of a plea to the government to abolish the user charge. If the tax is withdrawn, the collection of Rs, 7.05 crore from 587,910 assessments in the residential category and Rs. 69.83 lakh from 25,722 assessments in the commercial category, totalling Rs,7.77 crore, will stop.
The YSRC government had invoked the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 of the central government to impose user charge for garbage collection on residential and commercial complexes in the city limits.
The proposed charges per month were Rs.120 for residential buildings, Rs.60 for slums, and Rs.200 to Rs.15,000 for commercial properties.
The proposal to this effect was approved at the council meeting in June 2021 despite objections from the TD and JS corporators while the YSRC, with its majority in the council, got this passed. Subsequently, the user charge system was implemented.
Following protests, officials had temporarily suspended the collections, but later pressured ward secretariat personnel to meet collection quotas by issuing warnings to those who failed to comply.
Alliance leaders and candidates had pledged to abolish the user charges if elected. After the TD-led alliance took power, the GVMC stopped collection of user charges. Yet, alliance corporators and public representatives plan to introduce a resolution at the GVMC council meeting, urging the state government to formally announce the abolition of the system.
