Protest called off following BBMP’s promise to pay up

Garbage piled across various localities in the city following the protest by the garbage truck contractors on Monday. The door-to-door garbage collection was also affected.

However, in Jayanagar garbage was collected in view of the elections.

The garbage lorry contractors were upset with the BBMP for not paying their contract fees of Rs 200 crore. The amount has been pending for the past five months, they pointed out when the contractors staged a protest in front of Palike head office.

The garbage piles would have been worse as S N Balasubramaniam, general secretary, Bengaluru Mahanagara Swachate Lorry Malikara Mattu Guttigedarara Sangha, told DH: “We have cleaned the garbage till Sunday evening, hence there is not much garbage piled up in the city.”

The garbage truck contractors withdrew the protest after the Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara promised the pending amount to be paid within two days.

After meeting with the officials, Parameshwara decided to pay the pending amount to contractors.

S N Balasubramaniam said: “The BBMP officials told us they will pay 60% of the amount in two days. However, we have asked them to take a week’s time and pay the whole amount, for which, they have agreed.