NOIDA: The agency roped in by Noida Authority for door-to-door waste collection has initiated a special drive to recover dues from individual households and commercial establishment owners. But the process to recover the dues is meeting with stiff resistance since a lot of families are refraining from making the payments. Vehicles mounted with public address systems are going around in the residential sectors, urging defaulters to pay up.
Engaged for door-to-door waste collection, AG Enviro Infra Projects Pvt Ltd covers about 2.35 lakh units, of which 2.06 lakh are residential. The agency levies between Rs 25 and Rs 100 on individual households as per the size of the plots. It began the collection work in December last year. The process to collect user charges was hit during the Covid lockdown though waste collection was taking place. From September, the agency started collecting money from the waste generators.
“We began work in December last year. Hence we are calculating the user charges from December. We have got the money from highrise buildings. But 40% of families staying in residential colonies are unwilling to pay the dues,” said a senior official from the agency, who oversees the operations in Noida.
Explaining the reason, a resident of A block in Sector 61, Dharmendra Singh, said, “The agency is asking us to pay charges for the past one year. Though the amount is nominal, I still do not approve of this demand. I am unable to recollect the exact date or month when the waste collection process had begun in my colony. I am ready to pay from March since I remember waste was being collected during the lockdown.”
Senior project engineer (public health) at Noida Authority, SC Mishra, said, “The agency has been asked to levy charges from December. Those who do not have cash on them can pay digitally too.”
Officers of the agency, meanwhile, are saying that they will furnish a list containing the addresses of the defaulters to Noida Authority for further action.
The agency collects waste from 1.53 lakh flats, 53,000 houses and 28,000 commercial establishments in a day.