MCC council approves DPR for waste management

Opposition objects to proposal approved by the ruling BJP

As the seven-year contract of the Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt Ltd—the agency for waste collection in Mangaluru will end in January, the ruling BJP in the council of Mangaluru City Corporation has approved a proposed model to procure vehicles for waste collection and outsource the operation and maintenance of the system.

However, the Opposition, Congress, objected to the proposal stating that it would be an additional burden on the civic body and preferred a model of completely outsourcing the entire operation including vehicle, manpower, operation and maintenance, during a special meeting held under the chairmanship of Mayor Premananda Shetty.

The DPR of the three proposed models was prepared by Anti Pollution Drive. The DPR of the approved proposal will be submitted to the director of municipal administration for approval.

The proposal will be first placed before the state-level technical committee and later before the high power empowerment committee by the government before approval.

Explaining the DPR, consulting engineer of APD Akshay R said that Rs 37.99 crore would be required for the vehicles and equipment purchase. A total of 1,175 people would be required for waste collection and transportation. A total of 437 vehicles including 24 battery operated tricycles, tractors and compactors will have to be procured.

The entire city will be divided into four zones - North, South, Central Zone A and Central Zone B for the waste collection instead of the present two zones. The city generates a total of 382.93 tonnes of waste daily, he added.

The DPR has been prepared as per the guidelines of the Central and state governments under the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

Of the total project cost, 35% will be shared by the Centre (Rs 13.29 crore), 23.33% by the state government (Rs 8.86 crore) and 41.67% will be borne by the civic body (Rs 15.83 cr).

An official from the MCC said that depending on the population of the city, the MCC will require 789 paurakarmikas. Already, the MCC has 206 paurakarmikas.

According to government guidelines, 50% of the paurakarmikas should be directly recruited and the remaining should be deployed on a direct payment basis. The process for the recruitment of 188 civic workers has been initiated by the deputy commissioner.

MCC commissioner Akshy Sridhar said that with the finalised DPR, the MCC will have assets in the form of vehicles.

“We will enter into an agreement with the vehicle suppliers to maintain the vehicles for a certain period of time,” added the commissioner.

Subcommittee

The mayor said that a subcommittee will be constituted by including members from the Opposition for discussing further on micro-planning of the DPR within a week.

“We need to discuss in length before implementing the project. The DPR will be ratified in the next council meeting,” he said.

Further, he added that similar DPR proposals are being implemented in other city corporations in Karnataka.