Plaint against 7 waste management contractors

Ever wonder why most of your household garbage are lying at the allocated dump and emanating foul smell for days at end, like at the place just east of Santa Cruz bus depot? Because the waste management contractors have carried concrete debris instead of the waste and still get paid for it.

But on Friday, officials caught seven of these contractors “red-handed” and filed a police complaint against them.

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Department of BMC filed a written complaint against the seven contractors for breaching the norms of waste segregation.

This comes after BMC officials conducted surprise checks at 24 locations and found the contractors mixing concrete debris with dry waste at garbage segregation centres and refuge transport stations, so as to increase the weight of waste while taking it to the dumping ground. BMC pays Rs. 785 per tonne for wet and dry waste.

Additional Municipal Commissioner (AMC) Vijay Singal instructed SWM officials to act after receiving a number of complaints and secretly videograph the garbage segregation centres.

During these surprise checks, the seven contractors were trapped with video evidence and police complaints have been filed against them at Kurla and Vikhroli police stations for further probe.

An SWM officer said the contractors have been doing this every day and a record 9,500 metric tonnes of garbage collection had been made from the entire city. After their actions were caught, the collection has dropped to 7,700 metric tonnes..

“Already 38 such centres are available and surprise checks would continue so as to keep an eye on such illegal acts,” the officer said.

The SWM department has always faced flak for being unable to manage the waste in the city. In addition, the department has been charged by opposition party members with working hand in glove with the contractors and running a nexus. Earlier, Congress Legislator Aslam Shaikh had also complained.