Garbage operators accused of selling scrap, making crores

Nagpur: Workers of door-to-door garbage collection firms AG Enviro and BVG India are selling almost 60 tonne scrap daily to junk dealers causing loss to the tune of crores of rupees to the cash-strapped Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), alleged Shiv Sena (UBT) city unit president Nitin Tiwari on Wednesday.
Scrap worth about Rs10 lakh is being sold by both the companies each day, Tiwari claimed and handed over photographic evidence of purported GPS locations of the vehicles engaged by both the companies used to transport the scrap to additional municipal commissioner Ram Joshi. He also submitted names and addresses of the scrap dealers to whom the junk is being sold.

Instead of transporting the waste to Bhandewadi landfill, the workers sell it to around 30 scrap dealers across the city, Tiwari claimed.
Hundreds of Shiv Sena (UBT) activists led by Tiwari and Deepak Kapse on Wednesday resorted to a protest ‘junk scam movement’ outside the NMC headquarters and demanded action against the garbage operators.
Claiming that AG Enviro and BVG India are involved in selling scrap worth crores right under the nose of NMC’s solid waste management department, the protesters submitted a memorandum to Joshi and sought action.
Acting swiftly, deputy municipal commissioner (SWM) Dr Gajendra Mahalle ordered probe into Tiwari’s allegations. Dr Mahalle said the NMC will also issue notices to both the garbage operators and to all the 30 scrap dealers named by Tiwari. “We will also keep a watch on these scrap dealers and if we come across any garbage operator selling dry waste, both will face action,” Dr Mahalle said.
He said the SWM department will also issue directives to assistant municipal commissioners from all 10 zones to initiate action against unscrupulous scrap dealers. Dr Mahalle admitted that this practice is also affecting regular door-to-door garbage collection.
According to Tiwari, workers of both the garbage operators collect dry waste like plastic, shoes, cardboards etc along with general waste during the door-to-door collection daily. They later segregate the waste at the transit points across the city and sell it to scrap dealers, he claimed. The dealers later sell the scrap at a higher price to recyclers.
Some scrap dealers buy large quantities of scrap from the garbage transit points at the zone level thus causing huge financial loss to the civic body, said Tiwari.
The Sena neta said garbage collected from the city is the property of the NMC. Sorting the scrap illegally and selling it is violative of the agreement with the civic body and in fact theft of the NMC property.