Payment row hits door-to-door waste collection

JAIPUR: The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) which is beating its chest on being the cleanest city in the country is facing problems in door-to-door garbage collection.
A tussle between BVG Company (assigned for the collection of garbage) and JMC regarding the payment of dues has hit the service badly.
BVG claims that JMC has to give them Rs 70 crore and has not cleared any bill since May 2017.Everything is being run on advance.
Tanaji, project head, BVG said, “We have given notice to JMC many times but none of our bills have been cleared. Around 1,000 garbage vehicles are involved in the work of garbage collection. There are few complaints against us. We will work forward to improve our facilities but we want our remaining money from the JMC to invest on new vehicles or staff.”
Residents of Jhotwara and its nearby areas have complained that the frequency of the vehicles have reduced from daily to once in four days. The reason they have given is the technical problems in the vehicles because of which they are not being able to dump the garbage.
An official anonymously said, “When the tender was made, JMC officials did not made proper formula for the payment. There are no cameras to keep a track on the working of the company. BVG Company is claiming to be collecting 1,800 tonne of garbage as against the MoU of 1300 tonne. So, even that has to be looked into before paying them but JMC has no formula for any extra work.”
Mayor Ashok Lahoti said, “The problems will be sort out very soon. We are having meetings with the company officials. Regarding the frequency of the garbage trucks for that number of vehicles have to be increased which is not done due to the lack of payment. So, until this will take some time to complete.”
In areas of Raja Park and Tilak Nagar, the residents have complained that even though the vehicles arrive every day, the roads are not clean as vehicles are not assigned for that.