A team of officials from Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Corporation will soon visit Varanasi where NTPC is setting up a Waste to Energy (WTE) Plant estimated to cost ₹180 crore.
The visit is part of HDMC’s plan to address the problem of waste that has accumulated over the last four-five decades in the dumping yards of Hubballi and Dharwad. NTPC has chosen Hubballi for a similar project.
During the first general body meeting of the municipal council, Mayor Iresh Anchatageri instructed Commissioner B. Gopalkrishna to take a team of officials to Varanasi to study the project there and submit recommendations for the Hubballi project of the NTPC.
The Mayor gave this instruction after a discussion over the garbage issue raised by the former Mayor Veeranna Savadi through a calling attention motion.
Mr. Savadi said that the comprehensive solid waste management plan is not being effectively implemented by officials. He said that in many wards, door-to-door collection of waste has not been effective.
After initiation of the discussion, several councillors aired their views. They demanded that at least 30 workers should be provided to each ward to make the garbage collection system efficient. They also sought details of the workforce and machinery and vehicles deployed.
The officials said that the HDMC has 2,213 workers, of whom 444 are permanent employees, 984 working on direct payment and the remaining hired on contract basis. There are 193 auto-tippers, 75 tractors and five stationary compactors, they said.
The HDMC Commissioner said that, if they consider one civic worker for every 500 residents, then they have additional 200 civic workers for the twin cities and they couldn’t hire additional workers.
The discussion concluded with the Mayor asking the corporation commissioner to visit each zone and, in the presence of the councillors, allocate workers based on population, area, market and other parameters.
