Corporators want own teams,initiative runs into trouble

The civic officers feel that the elected representatives have a vested interest as the job enables them to have easy and daily access to every household in their wards. “The corporators can earn goodwill by helping people in their ward earn a tidy sum through the door-to-door waste collection. Plus,this will enable them to remain in touch with every household. But,the flipside is that the involvement of organisations chosen by political leaders would slow the initiative of making the city free of containers,” one of them said.

Congress corporator Kamal Vyavhare said the Swach representatives were not carrying out their responsibilities carefully as there were many complaints of misbehaviour against them. “There should be more organisations involved in the job; I am ready to rope in an organisation of my own,” he said and added that the elected representatives had to be given the opportunity to bring in people they know to carry out the task.

Former Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale said proper training should be given to those involved in the job. “I have trained a group of women to carry out the job efficiently,” she said and added that those involved in door-to-door waste collection were getting less returns while the cooperative was making more through it.

“The corporators are demanding that more organisations should be involved in the job rather than entrusting the task to one organisation. The administration will hold a meeting with the elected representatives on the issue and come out with a solution to ensure that the PMC objective to make city free of containers is achieved,” said Suresh Jagtap,deputy municipal commissioner and in-charge of solid waste department.

He said the civic administration wanted to cover at least 60 per cent households in the door-to-door waste collection and it was satisfied with the job done by Swach,but would like to see improvement in its functioning. On involving organisations of political leaders for the job,he said,“There is no harm in involving more agencies. The impact of involving new organisations can be ascertained only after taking the service.”

Shabana Diler of Swach said the organisation was yet to come out with a strategy in response to allegations levelled against them and issues raised by elected representatives. “We will soon respond to the concerns raised,” she said.