All the three Municipal bodies of Delhi are said to be inclined to impose a user fee of Rs 150 per household per month for garbage collection.
From next year, all residents in the Delhi may well have to pay a user fee for Solid Waste Management (SWM). For the present, all the three Municipal Corporations in Delhi are debating whether to impose a user fee on each resident and what should be the amount to be charged under this head.
The Union Urban Development Ministry under its SWM-2016 has given power to municipal bodies to bring each household in the city under the ambit of user fee for door-to-door collection of garbage.
City Spidey has learnt that so far only South Delhi Municipal Corporation has accepted this proposal. But when the same proposal was brought before the North MCD’s standing committee by municipal commissioner, it returned the proposal for reconsideration. While the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) will take decision on this matter at its next standing committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
Vipin Bihari Singh, Deputy Mayor in EDMC said, “We will go through all aspects before taking any decision on this matter. All civic bodies are almost ready to charge user fee but there are some issues which we need to discuss at length.”
When City Spidey asked if the municipal body will take opinion from the RWAs as well before finalising the user fee, Singh said, “Their opinion will be very important. I believe RWAs will agree if the committee approves the proposal.”
BS Vohra, president of East Delhi RWA joint forum, when asked for views on user fee, said, “Rs 150 per month is not a big amount and residents will be able to pay. How long MCDs can and will provide free services?”
The residents of co-operative group housing societies are already paying Rs 150- Rs 200 per month to their managing committees for door-to-door garbage collection. The question is whether MCD’s garbage collectors will collect garbage directly from flats? Anil Pandey, president of Vasundhara Enclave CGHS Joint Forum, said, “All societies have hired private garbage collectors and residents are paying for it. So, I don’t think housing societies will be brought into the same category.”
