PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) reluctance to renew its contract with SWaCH, the cooperative of waste-pickers, may result in the system of door-to-door garbage collection in the city coming to a halt.

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.