The Times of India 04.02.2014
Kolhapur Municipal Corporation to hire hands for waste management
KOLHAPUR: The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC), which faces the herculean task of clearing the garbage piled up on city roads, will appoint 320 employees on contractual basis to handle the trash.
The decision has been taken after the civic administration failed to act on the complaints of residents regarding poor management of garbage collection and disposal. The contract will be reviewed every five years.
At present, about 176 tonnes of garbage is generated in the city limits, but the KMC lacks the manpower to collect it. The garbage is not separated into dry and wet at the source of garbage generation leading to difficulties in disposal.
KMC chief sanitation inspector Vijay Patil said, "Door-to-door garbage collection is not possible due to shortage of manpower. We will request for a proposal and float tenders to invite organizations that have expertise in garbage collection, segregation and transportation. The work should be done according to the Municipal Solid Waste Management and Handling Rule drafted by the Union ministry of environment and forests so that the city is clean and free of filth."
At present, there are 550 garbage bins in various parts of the city. The KMC is also equipped with 150 cycle rickshaws and 10 ghantagadis that carry garbage. "The KMC is managing garbage collection and disposal for the past three years ever since Zoom Fertilizers terminated the garbage processing unit at Kasba Bawda. The company used to collect and transport the garbage after processing it," added Patil.
Around 3.5 lakh tonnes of garbage has been piled up at the Kasba Bawda site for the past three years. The KMC will appoint
a Pune based company to convert the waste into electricity. According to the draft agreement of the waste to energy plant, the responsibility of collection, separation and transportation of the garbage lies with the civic administration and the company will not help in the work. The draft also mentions that the garbage flow to the plant should be uniform and not be interrupted by any means so that the plant starts functioning to its full capacity.
Patil further said, "The proposed waste to energy plant will concentrate on the generation of electricity. It is our responsibility to consistently provide them the segregated garbage so that the process of generation of electricity is not interrupted. Appointing 320 employees is an attempt to ensure that the plant functions fully and yields satisfactory results."
According to the proposals invited by the civic administration, KMC will pay the labourers as per every tonne of garbage collected.
"We are hoping that many organizations involved in garbage processing will show interest in the tenders as they will earn a significant amount of money. The district hosts many industries processing renewable waste and the contractual labourers will earn significantly from waste segregated from raw garbage. The work of segregation will be done efficiently," added Patil.
Meanwhile, the work of preparing a scientific sanitary landfill site at Takala area of the city has been awarded environmental clearance by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. Though the contractor had been finalized, the work had not started as it was stuck for environmental approval. The work, which involves preparing the site in a scientific way so that leachate does not leak and pollute groundwater resources, will start by the end of this month. The KMC has allotted 2 hectares of land for the work, wherein inert material will be deposited. The site has the capacity to hold inert material from the garbage for five years.
