BMC refuses to collect garbage, Kandivli society members hire private vendor

The BMC is refusing to collect waste alleged members of a residential society in Mahavir Nagar Kandivli They added that the civic body had said the waste weighed over 100 kg in which case the society has to dispose of the same itself or via a private contractor as per rules The society members however alleged there was a nexus between the civic body and private vendors making them pay as much as Rs 15 lakh per monthMembers of Vasant Aradhana BCD Cooperative Housing Society alleged that the Brihanmumbai Municipal did not even weigh the garbage before stopping collection of the same and added that when they weighed it themselves they found the weight was around 65 kg which is within the permissible limit They accordingly wrote the solid waste department but to no availThis is the plight of several societies who have no choice but to cough up Rs 10000 to Rs 15000 every month to private vendors to dispose of the garbage midday visited society where chairpersons and secretaries of around 1520 housing societies in the area held a meeting on SundayMembers of Vasant Aradhana BCD Society weighed the garbage and found it to be 65 kg much less than the upper limit of 100 kgDeepak Patel a secretary of Vasant Aradhana BCD Society said ldquoWe have a total of 94 flats in the society including 10 flats that are vacant Around 1012 months ago the BMC told us that they would not collect garbage because we have more than 100 kg of garbage daily So we hired a private vendor who earlier used to charge Rs 12000 each month but now charges Rs 11000 per month We spent more than Rs 15 lakh in a year for disposing of the garbagerdquoldquoThe private vendors who are collecting the garbage from our society are sent by the SWM department only Around 1012 months ago their rate was Rs 260 per flat which meant Rs 24440 per month for the society After bargaining they agreed to Rs 12000 per month and later further reduced it to Rs 11000rdquo Patel addedSociety chairman Chandrakant Mehta added ldquoThe private vendor we hired was sent by the BMC They do not have any fixed rate and are looting us as we do not have any other option So we conducted a test drive and checked the weight of the garbage and found that it was only 65 kgs including dry and wet garbage We sent the receipt to the SWM department and also wrote a letter asking BMC to collect our garbage but are yet to get any responseSociety treasurer Tushar Sanghvi said ldquoOur society was constructed in 1996 and this rule was created by BMC recently We canrsquot afford to purchase a garbage disposal machine which costs us around Rs 12Rs 15 lakh and we also have to hire a person to operate it and clean it The BMC should take responsibility and help usrdquoOther societies face same problem tooThe Panchsheel Garden Society in the same area is also facing the same problem Speaking with midday Kaushal Thakkar secretary of the PQR society said ldquoSince the past 68 months we have also hired a vendor who regularly picks up garbage and we are paying around R100 per flat The BMC also told us that we will get a 5 per cent rebate but we didnrsquot get that yetrdquoRajesh Mehta secretary of Raj Arcade society which has around 165 flats and 42 shops said ldquoOur society is too big and the garbage will be around 120125 kg We also requested from BMC that if they are able to collect only 100 kg then remaining 25 kg that we will give it for disposal outside to the vendor However we are not getting any response BMC has not yet initiated to fix the fixed rate card for the private vendors who are looting us We are spending lakhs of rupees behind it and not getting anything in returnrdquoPadmavati Complex at Dahanukar wadi has also hired a private contractor but at a much cheaper rate of R68 per flat Society secretary Rajiv Gandhi said ldquoEarlier BMC forced us to hire their vendors who had quoted the charge as Rs 150 per flat We then found another vendor who offered to charge R68 per flat Our society is too old and all the space we have is already occupied with parking and greenery If we keep this garbage disposal machine in society it will create more pollution and also it has high chances of increasing mosquitoes rats and more thingsrdquoWill check with society BMCRajendra Sankhe junior overseer officer of SWM department R South ward said ldquoThe BMC chief issued a circular which stated that buildings constructed after 2007 and old big complexes have to segregate their garbage on their own whereas occupants of buildings constructed before 2007 do not have to segregate their waste We already provided garbage dustbins to the societies The big dustbin has a capacity of 80 kg while others are 2040 kg We mostly count weight based on the dustbins We will check with this societyrdquoHe added ldquoThese societies in Mahavir Nagar area are big and have many members in the society We will pick up their dry waste but they have to dispose of the wet waste on their ownrdquoCorporator SpeakBJP corporator Pratibha Girkar from Mahavir Nagar said ldquoI received many complaints from Kandivli residents who are facing issues regarding garbage collection Many societies which have less than 100 kg of waste are also facing problems as BMC is not collecting the garbage We will talk to BMC officials and will also protest if needed We suspect many BMC officials are involved in this scamrdquoRs 14LAmount the society currently pays to the private vendor