Only 54% households pay user fee for collection of dry waste

Thiruvananthapuram: Only 54% of households in the city pay user fee to Haritha Karma Sena (HKS) workers, as per the latest report prepared by the health wing based on figures collected in November 2022.
Until November, HKS workers paid visits to 1.54 lakh households and user fees could be collected from only 84,515 households. Owing to the persistent indifference of certain households, the civic body has slapped notices on 744 owners.
Many households have skipped paying the user fee to HKS saying that they don’t require their service and that they have a system to process dry waste. Only a few BPL households and houses in coastal areas are given exemption in terms of user fee.
The civic body has now issued notices to such individuals asking them to explain the type of system which they use to process the plastic waste and other kinds of recyclable trash.
HKS workers were widely deployed in the city for the systematic and periodic collection of dry waste and it was aimed at checking the practice of burning of dry waste in public places and dumping of such waste in waterbodies.
The local self-government department (LSGD) has recently issued an order directing the local bodies to ensure 100% collection of user fee. One of the measures being suggested is that local bodies could make furnishing of user fee cards or copy of the receipt mandatory while filing applications for various kinds of services like residence certificate, ownership certificate and various other services being availed from local bodies.
Corporation officials hinted that such drastic measures would be taken only after due deliberation and that council has to take a call on that. Besides, there is lack of clarity regarding the order as it doesn’t give an explicit direction to make copy of user fee card or payment receipt mandatory for issuing certificates. Figures with the civic body show that HKS workers collected an amount of Rs 86 lakh in November through sale of scrap and other income. Even then, an HKS could make only less than Rs 10,000 a month. Given the nature of toil on the field and the hardships they face, this monthly income is insufficient. HKS collected 1.26 kg of dry waste in November.
User fee for waste collection has always been a contentious issue in the city. In 2017, the corporation had pitched slab-based user fees for waste management. However, it was forced to withdraw the decision to impose Rs 800 as collection and processing charges for waste management.
The user fee, which was fixed at Rs 250 per month for collection of recyclable waste and maintenance of kitchen bins, had to be slashed to Rs 200.
Low user fee has deterred service providers from taking up the maintenance of waste management units as many of them ran into serious loss.