AMC plans to rope in ragpickers for door-to-door garbage collection

After Pune, now Ahmedabad plans to involve ragpickers in waste management and cleanliness drive across the city. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), in collaboration with NGOs, plans to involve thousands of ragpickers in door-to-door garbage collection and its segregation.

With the AMC having identified around 6,000 ragpickers, civic officials believe the project would take care of the perpetual problem of garbage dumps on the city roads and thus the increasing number of ragpickers.

Recently, a team of senior officials visited Pune to study the model that is followed by the civic body there.

AMC commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra said that since Pune has done best in city's waste management with the help of ragpickers, this model is being studied. After consultations and deliberations with experts, a similar one would be adopted for Ahmedabad.

Under the model, to identify ragpickers employed in this project, they will be provided uniforms and identity cards by the corporation. They will directly collect garbage from houses. After segregation of the collected waste, they will be free to sell waste like empty bottles, plastic containers and other items with resale value. Th remaining waste would be dumped by the corporation.

For remuneration of the ragpickers, there will be no middlemen or contractors. Each household will have to pay Rs 1 per day for this service directly to them. For its implementation, several NGOs working on a similar cause will be involved in the project.

Present system

Currently, the AMC has roped in four contractors for the job. Using smaller vehicles with a maximum load carrying capacity of one tonne, these contractors collect waste from residential areas in the morning followed by commercial areas in the afternoon. The garbage is then dumped at various dumping sites.

ALSO READ

Astronomy buffs geared up for meteor shower

Narendra Modi dials Lalu, enquires about health after car accident

From Ramdev stage in Haridwar, Modi swears by gurus of all hues

PIL puts Tata Motors, state govt in the dock over Nano deal