LMC may rope in more agencies for door-to-door waste collection

LUCKNOW : The Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) may rope in more agencies for door-to-door collection of waste, a job currently undertaken only by EcoGreen, which is not performing as per the expectations of the civic body, said officials.

In the past also, corporators had blamed EcoGreen for poor sanitation in the state capital. Now, in the wake of fever and dengue cases, there is pressure on the LMC to deploy more sanitation agencies.

Mayor Sanyukta Bhatia said, “It’s a proposal that needs to be implemented soon by LMC. We cannot compromise with the health of Lucknowites. More than one agency could be roped in for collection of waste and sanitation work in every zone.”

“The proposal in this regard is being considered by the authorities,” said Dr SK Rawat, nagar swasthya adhikari.

EcoGreen is covering around 50% of houses in the city, but there are complaints about non-collection of waste. At many places, workers of the company don’t turn up daily for waste collection, he said.

He added , “Some of the agencies supplying manpower to LMC are under scanner for fudging records of their employees. Many times, the companies don’t appoint the staff in adequate numbers because of which sanitation in the area suffers.”

In the past, the LMC tried to introduce Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology so that bar codes could be used to ensure door-to-door garbage collection.

“The LMC brought the technology from a Pune firm at Rs 10 lakh. But the sanitation workers never allowed its implementation,” said Rawat.

“Now, the corporation is thinking of starting a pilot project in which a sanitation worker will be required to scan the ward using a smartphone, after collection of waste or cleaning the lane. However, the sanitation workers take a plea that they don’t have any smart phone with them. This has to be sorted out,” added Rawat.