Journalism of Courage
The SWACH worker’s cooperative initiative of door-to-door waste collection in the city has received praise from the parliamentary standing committee for urban development. It has made elected representatives in the PMC consider extending the service.
The elected representatives were delaying the extension of agreement with SWACH. Now, the city is witnessing an acute problem of garbage disposal and it has put pressure on the corporators to take a stand on the SWACH initiative.
The SWACH initiative was started in 2007 after the waste-pickers in the city came together to establish an organisation which enabled them to make a transition from waste-pickers to service providers. The 2,300 members involved in the door-to-door waste collection service cover four lakh households in the city at an average fee of Rs 30 per month.
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In 2008, the PMC made a five-year agreement with SWACH for door-to-door waste collection service. As per the agreement, the PMC was to provide infrastructure, management costs, equipment, safety gear and welfare benefits to SWACH members.
“The civic administration had tabled a proposal to extend the agreement but their was no consensus among the leaders of the political parties. It has been pending with the coordination committee for long. We cannot keep on postponing the decision as it is related to the ongoing problem of waste disposal in the city,” said Mayor Dattatraya Dhankawade.
The mayor said, “There is no consensus over it. Thus, we decided to take it up for discussion with all the elected representatives by tabling it in the standing committee and general body meeting.”
Many corporators have been complaining against SWACH for inefficient service and for not listening to the local elected representatives. They had taken up the issue in the general body meeting with demand to discontinue the service but the civic administration continued with the door-to-door waste collection through SWACH members.
According to the civic administration, the segregation of waste at source has become necessary for ensuring effective disposal of waste generated in the city every day.
“The elected representatives have been delaying the agreement with the SWACH cooperative as they want to set up their own team of workers for the service as this would enable them to reach every household across the year. This network would be a boon to the elected representatives in their future political careers,” said a civic officer.
The Union government was impressed by the work of the SWACH cooperative and this might force the corporators to give permission to the civic administration to continue with the SWACH service, he added.
