Indain Express 14.12.2009

PCB mulls door-to-door waste collection in cantonment area

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) has decided to streamline the garbage collection system in the cantonment area through door-to-door waste collection.

A committee under the PCB Chief Health Superintendent has been set up to formulate a detailed plan for the same within 20 days.

The decision to appoint a committee was taken in the general body meeting attended by PCB president Brig Rajbir Singh, Chief Executive Officer DK Malik and other elected and nominated members. It will be incorporated with the ‘Ghanta Gadi’ project for garbage collection in which special vehicles were planned to go from house to house to collect garbage every day.

“The committee will look into various aspects of waste collection and also various ways to streamline it.

The viability of the project has to be scrutinised.

The committee will determine the collection process of door-to-door degradable and biodegradable wastes and local collection points.

The route and timing of collection also has to be finalised,” said Brig Rajbir Singh, president, PCB.

He suggested in the meeting that there should be a public stake in the project so that people would be more responsible and have a serious outlook towards the project. “The board can charge the nominal monthly amount from each house for the collection of waste. The Pune Municipal Corporation is already following this method,” he said.

About 14,500 tonnes of waste is generated annually within the PCB limit and a large chunk of it is now dumped in a 27-acre land that belongs to the Board near the Hadapsar Industrial Estate after the closure of the vermicompost plant.

PCB CEO DK Malik had earlier said that the vermicompost plant will be operational by March and Rs 8 lakh has been sanctioned for its renovation. At full capacity, the plant can treat up to 40 tonnes of biodegradable waste on a day-to-day basis.

Meanwhile, the meeting also discussed the constitution of school management committees in all schools run by the PCB. For schools having 400 or more children, the total number of members will be eight.

Schools having 150-400 children will have six members and for schools with less than 150 students, there will be four members. Chairman of the committee will be one of the members of the school management committee.

The tenure of members including chairman will be three years from the date of nomination. The committee will meet once in a month in the respective schools.

The Times of India 14.12.2009

Villagers set May '10 deadline for ending garbage dumping

TNN 14 December 2009, 07:26am IST

PUNE: Strongly opposing the Pune Municipal Corporation's plan to continue dumping of garbage at the Urali garbage depot, members of the Phursungi gram panchayat set May 2010 as the deadline for completely stopping garbage dumping there.

The demands of the residents in Urali and Phursungi have come at a time when the PMC's earlier deadline to complete various development works at the villages comes to an end on December 14.

Making their stand clear on a request made by the district collectorate to allow the PMC to dump garbage till May next year, the village panchayat charged that the PMC had flouted all norms regarding waste disposal in the last nine years and carelessly dumped garbage despite severe opposition from the residents of Urali and Phursungi. The panchayat said that it has no right to take a decision on extending the time limit for the PMC to allow dumping of garbage.

In a resolution, the panchayat said that the PMC should take permission from the concerned authorities as per the solid waste management rules 2000 and submit copies of the permission to the panchayat. Large-scale dumping of garbage has already affected the environment, the panchayat added. The PMC' s attempt to start a vermi-composting plant at the site last month had caused confusion among the residents, it added.

The panchayat, in one of its important demands, has asked for complete details with maps of the scientific capping work of garbage is being done at the garbage depot. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, in May this year, had directed the PMC to complete the scientific capping work by May 2010.

In May this year, the residents of the villages had launched an agitation wherein all garbage dumpers were prevented from going to the depot. The agitation continued for 12 days which resulted in accumulation of garbage all over the city. A meeting was convened on May 14 in which various issues related to garbage disposal and development works in the villages had been chalked out.

The panchayat observed that the progress report, which was supposed to be made available every month to the residents as well as the concerned authorities including the MPCB, was not being sent at all. The panchayat, therefore, demanded that the progress of the work should be discussed with the villagers at the depot site itself. The villagers have also demanded that the leachate collection and disposal process should be completed on a war footing.

The issue of garbage disposal at Urali will come up for discussion at the PMC standing committee meeting on Tuesday as the civic administration has tabled two proposals related to the issue. One proposal pertains to taking up additional development works costing Rs 21.36 crore at Urali and Phursungi villages. The works to be taken on priority had been suggested by the district collectorate in October this year. The works include laying of water pipelines, asphaltation of internal roads, completing closed drainage works, and also implementation of local water supply scheme. Another proposal pertains to preparation of a detailed project report on integrated solid waste management plan for the city for the next twenty years.