As many as 51 apartments and 3,500 houses in the city have begun making compost from wet waste now, according to Environment Engineer of the Mangaluru City Corporation Madhu S. Manohar.
He told the council meeting of the corporation here on Wednesday that the civic body has begun receiving applications from some of them seeking rebate in the solid waste management cess being collected while they paid property tax.
Short of vehicles
Replying to questions from councillors, he said that Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt. Ltd., which is handling solid waste for the corporation as its contractor, has deployed 18 compactors (large vehicles) against the requirement of 23 vehicles as per the terms of the contract for transporting solid waste to the compost plant of the corporation at Pachchanady.
The contractor is short of seven small vehicles against the requirement of 84 such vehicles to transport waste from the doorsteps of houses and other establishments.
Mayor Diwakar had at a meeting here on Tuesday instructed the contractor to meet the shortage of vehicles within two days by outsourcing them. If the company failed to do it, the corporation should arrange for those vehicles and deduct the rental amount for hiring those vehicles from the account of the contractor, he had said.
Dry waste
Naveen R. Souza, a councillor from the Congress, urged the corporation to collect dry waste daily along with wet waste.
As the civic body is now collecting dry waste once in a week, that is, on Fridays, dry waste is piling up in large apartments, he said.
He suggested that the corporation opt for decentralised waste processing by installing organic waste converters in identified places for composting wet waste.
Smart City projects
Referring to Smart City Mission projects, Whip in the council Premananda Shetty said that Mangaluru Smart City Project Ltd. should place the additional project proposals before the council for a discussion and approval before placing them before the company’s decision-making committees for approval.
Mr. Diwakar said that a special meeting will be called to discuss the Smart City projects.
Earlier, the ruling and the opposition party councillors had a heated exchange of words over matters relating to protocols for inviting elected representatives to various programmes organised by the corporation.
