The civic body officials here have received over 200 complaints by residents who have been charged over Rs 4,000 a month for waste collection.
About 550 metric tonnes of waste is generated daily in Chandigarh, of which merely 12 per cent is processed, as per the figures presented in the special house meeting held on Thursday, to deliberate on the technology used at the waste processing plant.
Chandigarh Municipal Commissioner KK Yadav said that at the moment, Chandigarh generates about 550 to 600 metric tonnes (MT) of waste daily and with the machinery employed at the plant, the civic body is able to process only up to 70 metric tonnes daily. He said that considering 550 MT of waste is generated everyday, only 12 per cent of it is processed.
Of the waste generated daily, dry waste component is about 200 MT and kitchen waste or wet waste is about 150 to 175 MT. Meanwhile, about 75 to 100 MT of the total waste is mixed and about 125 to 150 MT is horticulture waste.
Joint Commissioner Sorabh Arora said before the house that even if the civic body runs the machinery to its maximum limit, which is up to 14 hours a day, only 70 MT of waste will be able processed. “I have studied it thoroughly and even if we run it for 14 hours a day, we are not able to process more than 70 MT. We do not understand how the Jaypee group claimed that the plant was processing up to 300 MT, because practically we cannot see that,” Arora said in the house.
MC KK Yadav said that the waste processing plant should be transformed into a waste to energy unit for dry waste. “We have already seen the mechanism of waste to RDF which was done by Jaypee group and it was a flop show. RDF disposal is also difficult, thus, we should go for the waste to energy plant. Many high income and middle income countries are also employing this technology, let Chandigarh have it too,” Yadav stated in the house.
Meanwhile, about the door-to-door segregation, Yadav specified during the meeting that the city has been generating 70 to 75 per cent of segregated waste since the Municipal Corporation began the twin-bin vehicle system.
BJP Councillor Asha Jaswal hands over cheque to Babla
In the last house meeting, Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla had specified that during a study tour, he had paid a bill amounting to thousands for tea and snacks at a five-star hotel, as no other councillor settled it. This time, Jaswal got a cheque and stated that she made the payment of the expenses incurred at the hotel. However, Babla refused and tore the cheque, saying that the bill is owed by the civic body.
Water rates and sewerage cess
On the water rates, the commissioner clarified that till now, the bills were being charged at higher rates, but from the next cycle, the water bills will be generated at lower rates.
As the councillors questioned about the sewerage cess in the water bills, he specified that in the fresh notification issued by the UT about holding the hiked rates, there is no mention of reducing sewerage cess in any notification as of now.
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