Residents raise garbage disposal issues even as new agency streamlines waste management operations in Puducherry

After several residential neighbourhoods in the town and suburbs of Puducherry faced problems in timely removal of solid waste over the past few weeks, the new agency involved in collection, transportation, and processing of garbage seems to be getting its act together in streamlining its operations across the city.

Green Warrior, the Tamil Nadu-based firm, had taken over garbage management in Puducherry from Swachatha Corporation last month. In the initial weeks, residents complained of conservancy workers not maintaining fixed schedule for waste collection from their localities and about lack of bins in the streets to dispose garbage.

“The workers do not follow any fixed time for collecting waste from houses. On one day, they come early in the morning, and on another, they arrive quite late. So, the office-goers find it difficult to dispose garbage. If we keep the waste near the gate, dogs and cattle rummage through the covers, littering the entire area,” Bhaskar, a resident of Lawspet said. 

The municipality should direct the agency to place large bins in select areas for the time being so that residents could dump the waste in case of workers not turning up on time, he said. Such problems were being reported at the Pondicherry and Oulgaret municipalities.

According to an employee of Oulgaret Municipality, the civic body has received complaints pertaining to garbage collection. “We have also served notice to the agency asking them to rectify the shortcomings. The agency has many vehicles, of which around 100 are battery operated and finding people to operate these vehicles was difficult. These are teething issues and will be addressed shortly,” the employee said.

The idea behind not keeping bins on the streets was to promote door-to-door collection, said S. Sakthivel, Director of Local Administration Department. “The agency has been tasked with the job of door-to-door collection so that household waste does not come to the streets. Till the agency streamlines the collection process, we may ask them to place more bins. Another problem with keeping bins is that people do not often drop the waste inside the bins but throw them around the bins. It creates more problems for the workers,” he said.