Chandigarh: Sector 27 wants lower fee for waste lifting

CHANDIGARH: Door-to-door garbage collectors may have ended their strike but the residents of Sector 27-A and 27-B continue to have overcharging issues with them


During a recent meeting when the strike was on in the city, the resident welfare association of Sector 27 came to know that the garbage collectors were charging them Rs 300 to Rs 900 for each house they covered. The RWA decided that if these workers refused to follow the fresh rate fixed by it, the association will suspend their services and hire a new team.


Area councillor Devinder Singh Babla said: “I had resolved the issue of the collectors’ overcharging each household but the residents were reluctant to pay extra for the lifting of garden waste. I have asked the residents to resolve the issue of garden waste charges on their own.”

Sector-27 RWA president Bhupinder Kaur Sandhu took a decision in an internal meeting of the association that after the strike, she will discuss the matter with garbage collectors and create payment slabs for different types of house. She said: “When the strike was over and the RWA held a meeting with the garbage collectors, they refused to change the fee they had been taking from each household. The matter then brought to the notice of the area councillor Devinder Singh Babla.”

Sandhu claimed to have told Babla that in Sectors 28 and 30 of his ward, the doorto-door garbage collectors were charging people Rs 100 for each floor. “Then why the residents of Sectors 27-A and 27 B have to pay a different rate?” she said. After the RWA raised the matter, the area councillor organised a meeting between waste collectors and representatives from Sectors 27, 28, and 30. But it proved to be unfruitful when the garbage collectors walked out of negotiations. After an “unsatisfactory” response from the area councillor, the Sector-27 RWA decided to solve the problem on its own.

On Wednesday, the association quoted a fresh rate for all door-to-door garbage collection, with the condition that if the collectors disagreed, they could withdraw their services and leave the sector to hire a fresh team. The Federation of Sector Welfare Associations of Chandigarh (Foswac) has also called a meeting on this issue.

The garbage collectors went to strike on September 11 without giving any notice to the municipal corporation. They started the agitation based on a report under the Smart City proposal to start a new system of door-to-door garbage collection in four sectors. The MC claims the collectors didn't bother to discuss the issue with thgem and went on strike immediately.

They stopped the MC's trucks from entering the garbage-processing plant.