According to GDA officials, the charges will depend upon the size of flats and will be implemented by June 8. Residents, however, called the charges unjustified as they are already paying for the same under maintenance charges.
From next month onwards, the residents of Indirapuram living in condominiums as well as independent houses will have to pay separate charges to the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) for door-to-door garbage collection.
Depending on the size of flats, the charges will vary between Rs 20 and Rs 150 per month.
According to a GDA official, till now the residents were only paying maintenance charges to AOA or RWA and garbage collection was being done for free. But from June 8 onwards, the residents will have to pay extra for garbage collection.
The residents of high rises will be charged as per the size of flats, said the officer. “For flats with an area up to 1,000 sq ft, Rs 50 per month will be charged, while Rs 100 will be charged for flats with an area of 1,000-1,080 sq ft and Rs 150 for flats above 1,080 sq ft area. The residents of independent houses will have to pay Rs 25 per month for 100 sq m area, Rs 50 for 100-200 sq m, Rs 75 for 200-300 sq m and Rs 100 for area above 300 sq m,” GDA official added.
The official further said that restaurants, hotels, schools and hospitals will also have to pay charges for garbage collection.
“Hospital will have to pay somewhere between Rs 100 - Rs 3,500 per month depending on the number of beds in the hospital – Rs 1,000 for 15 beds only, Rs 1,500 for 15 to 50 beds, Rs 2,500 for 50 to 100 beds and Rs 3,500 for hospitals with 100 to 300 beds,” official added.
Ajit Singh, assistant engineer with GDA, said that the charges have been decided by the authority and will be implemented by June 8. “Once the Lok Sabha elections are over, we will take further approval and start charging for door-to-door garbage collection,” he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to City Spidey, Alok Kumar, president of FedAOA, said that the charges are unjustified and an overload on the residents as they are already paying for the same under maintenance charges which GDA annually collects from each society.
“We don’t want to pay these new charges for two reasons. First, they are four times higher than Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam's charges and are totally unjustified. Second, charges for garbage collection are already included in the maintenance fee GDA takes from the residents,” Kumar commented.
He also claimed that it's false that so far the GDA had been collecting garbage for free. “The authority had included this charge in the maintenance fee from the start. So, it was never a free service which they claim," Alok claimed.
Door-to-door garbage collection was first started in Indirapuram in October 2017. According to estimates, the city generates nearly 950 metric tonnes of solid waste daily. However, it still hasn’t been able to find a permanent way to scientifically dispose waste as per the guidelines of the Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules.
Though two solid waste management plants have been proposed at Galand and Modinagar, the construction work is yet to begin.
