All party corporators have expressed their deep concern about the heaps of garbage in all parts of the city and demanded that due steps should be taken by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). According to these corporators city cleaning system in Pune has to be strengthened. It is evident by the ever increasing piles of garbage in various parts of the city that the civic body has been negligent in the hygienic practices in the city.

Shiv Sena MLA Mahadev Babar organized a morcha at the PMC on Thursday to register protest the lethargy shown by the civic body in this regard. Many corporators form the Kondhwa area joined the morcha. Mr. Mahadev Babar was talking to the correspondents on this occasion. He said, “Areas including Kondhwa, Ram tekadi, Mundhwa, Hadapsar and nearing areas are suffering because of the PMC’s apathy. The problem has aggravated with the monsoon.” According to some of the corporators the door-to-door garbage collection system is not working effectively and decentralization of the system seems to be the solution to the problem.

Corporators advocate that the civic administration should incorporate some private organizations in the city in order to improve the sanitary conditions in Pune. If the civic body works on this plan, while the cleaning practices in the city will improve, many ragpickers will get a sure means of earning with the PMC assistance. The stats show that at present, the city generates around 1,300-1,400 tonnes garbage every day. After the open space dumping of garbage has been stopped by the PMC, the Urali based Hanjer biotech company plant is processing around 1,000 tonnes of garbage per day and the remaining garbage is being taken to the biogas plants, vermicomposting and mechanical compost units in the city.

However, the amount of garbage is bound to increase with the increase in the city population in the future and the PMC will have to think about the novel garbage processing methods. In the general body meeting held recently at the PMC head office; funds were allocated in the 2011-12 budget for the capping of Urali Devachi based dumping ground. The villagers here have strongly protested in the recent past against the dumping of garbage in this area.

-Yogesh Sapre