After numerous meetings, repeated reminders and notices did not have the desired effect, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials resorted to ‘Gandhigiri’. Zonal and deputy commissioners and other senior officials sat in protest in front of some hotels for their failure to install compost units to process the wet waste.
Paradise Hotel, Hotel Park Continental, Swagat Grand, Pista House, Blue Orchid, etc., were among the several hotels where the municipal officials accompanied by their sanitation staff took up protest programme till the respective managements accepted to take up the compost units before the Independence Day.
The municipal corporation earlier notified that hotels, function places, banquet halls and others, as per the new solid waste management Rules of 2016, all commercial bulk garbage generators producing 50 or more kilos of waste per day have to install composting machines.
“We took up our protests at commercial establishments which had not shown any movement in taking up the compost units despite issuing several notices,” said municipal officials, insisting that August15 was the deadline for installing such units.
Road repairs
While the civic body began pot-filling exercise at different spots where its personnel dumped the molten metal wherever they noticed a cavity, Mayor B. Rammohan noticed this quick yet tardy work and showed them how it should be done at Fever Hospital. He urged the engineers on the field to supervise even minor works.
Later, Municipal Administration Secretary Arvind Kumar advised the engineers of all circles to open up twitter accounts and put up at least four photos of the work done everyday which should keep the people informed about the jobs identified and done. If 10 tweets are sent from each circle, it will be an effective means to control the trolls on social media, he observed.
He wanted engineers at the ground level and other staff to be more alert in the next two months when rains are expected to hit the capital leading to several complaints about roads, drains, etc.
Since they are the first responders, their work will reflect on the GHMC functioning, he added.