Garbage collection to go private?

Hyderabad: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K Taraka Rama on Saturday directed the civic authorities to examine the possibilities of involving private companies in garbage collection and disposal to take up as a pilot project as community participation is key in waste management.

A few private companies are partnering with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in a few initiatives but more private companies should come forward in waste management, said the Minister while inaugurating the National Waste Management summit held at Taj Krishna on Saturday. KTR said the GHMC is hosting the summit and the top 20 cities which topped Swachh Survekshan and others are also participating in the programme.

Explaining the dry and wet waste segregation practice being followed by GHMC, the Minister desired that the Municipal Corporation authorities to tie up with the School Education department and schools should be supplied with large bins to make students dump the waste separately. The idea is to catch them young and promote good practices among the students from the grass-root level and also to have an awareness programme to be conducted in the schools.

The MA&UD Minister presented a memento to Venkataiah, who was working since 16 years without any leave and rendering services which is highly appreciative and interacted with him and praised him for his efficient work.
The Minister along with Mayor Bonthu Rammohan, during the inaugural session of the programme launched GHMC’s upgraded website and GPS enabled tracking system for garbage trucks and also launched the iOS version of MyGHMC app.

MA&UD Secretary Navin Mittal said Elets and GHMC has taken up very good initiative for creating a platform for the conduct of National Waste Management summit in Hyderabad and this type of platform is very essential and needed for urban governance.

Mittal said the GHMC was first to introduce 2,000 Swachh autos to collect garbage waste from door-to-door as seen in the past only 3,300 metric tons of garbage used to be collected everyday but after introduction of Swachh autos about 4,500 metric tons of garbage per day is collected. In a very short time significant improvement in lifting of garbage has been observed when compare to that of other municipal corporations in the country, he said.

GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy said the objective behind organising the summit was to create a separate platform to share good practices being followed in different municipal corporations and basically to inspire the self-transformation and willing to learn from others.

He said some 4,000 and odd cases are being received from the citizens through call centres and various other modes of communication channels. He said the officials are trying their best to sort out the issues. He also stated that 60 best practices are being implemented and its one of its kind in the entire country.

Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation V Radha praised the efforts which are being made by the GHMC Commissioner and the officials.

MA&UD Commissioner TK Sridevi, MLAs Vinaya Bhasker, Ajay Kumar and senior officials from various heads of the departments and representatives from Elets organisation participated in the inaugural session.