The five-year agreement came to an end in September last. As per the
contract, the PMC shouldered the responsibility of providing basic
equipment like hand gloves, buckets, cotton scarfs, raincoats etc to
waste-pickers besides contributing to welfare scheme of the members’
children. The PMC had also promised to meet the administrative cost for
collecting and segregating garbage from four lakh households in the
city. All these benefits have stopped since the contract expired last
year.

“For the last one year, we have been working without a
contract and have been deprived of benefits offered by the PMC. We are
running the show with the help of charges that we collect from people.
The PMC has repeatedly assured us that the contract will be renewed, but
nothing has happened so far,” said Mangal Pagare, CEO of SWaCH. The PMC
also needs to take a call on charges citizens will have to pay for the
daily service.

Waste-pickers fear the system will collapse if
the PMC continues to ignore the matter and delay a decision on renewal
of the contract.

PMC’s solid waste department head Suresh
Jagtap said, “We are in the process of renewing the contract. We have
already prepared a draft, which will be presented to elected
representatives. Several rounds of meetings were held with SWaCH and the
demands of waste-pickers have been taken care of.”

SWaCH members want the PMC to clear the pending dues and ensure the terms and conditions of the contract are adhered to.