The Times of India             27.09.2013

AMC to charge for handling solid waste

AURANGABAD: The civic body on Thursday passed a resolution to charge a fee from all residential, commercial and institutional properties for handling solid waste.

The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will now collect 50 paise per day from flats or bungalows and 25 paise from slum dwellers.

The administration has proposed eight different categories of properties for the charges to be collected. All residential properties such as flats, bungalows and huts are placed in the first category. Commercial properties like hotels (big, small and medium), function halls, cinema halls, vegetable markets, schools and colleges, governmental offices, etc., are placed in second category, while hospitals and pathology labs are placed in third and fourth categories respectively. Nursing homes, industrial units, others non-residential properties and temporary structures for exhibitions, etc., have also been placed in different categories.

Commenting on the project, deputy municipal commissioner Ravindra Nikam said the civic body might start collecting the charges in the next 30 or 40 days. "Previously, we had planned to implement the project through the public private partnership (PPP) model, but it was not approved by the general body," he said. He said the proposal was now passed as it was made mandatory by the state government. "The general body has passed it today and the municipal commissioner will take a final call on the execution of the plan," he said.

The civic body has planned to collect Rs 200 daily from big hotels, Rs 100 from the mid-sized and Rs 25 from the small ones. Halls, cinema theatres and lawns will be charged Rs 100 per day.

Weekly markets and private vegetable markets will be charged Rs 500 per day for taking care of the solid waste generated by them. Vendors will have to pay Re 1 per day. In case of schools and colleges, a charge of Rs 10 per day has been proposed and the vendors will have to pay Re 1 per day. For hospitals and pathology labs, the municipal corporation proposed Rs 15 per day. The industrial units will have to pay Rs 600 per day and the slaughter houses will be chared Rs 1000 per day.

At present, civic employees, along with members of some self-help groups (SHGs), collect garbage from various collection points and dump it at the Naregaon dumping yard without collecting any charges from the citizens. It is important to note that the city has more than 1,62,000 properties, including 183 big hotels, 135 mid-size hotels and 376 small hotels. The number of hospitals and pathology labs in the city is 577 and 56 respectively.