Littering unabated as officials wary of action

Rajendranagar : Even though the Commissioner of GHMC gave a freehand to crack the whip against those throwing garbage in the open, the officials in Rajendranagar are reluctant to take action against the unethical practice citing the higher-ups were not permitting them to do so, fearing a public uproar and political backlash.

"People are threatening us if we knock on their doors early in the morning to collect the garbage. Later, they are simply throwing the garbage on the open space around them and even not paying the garbage collection fee every month.

They don't even have a sense of maintaining hygiene and simply littering their surroundings, let alone the sense of segregating dry and wet garbage," said a member of garbage collection team at Kings Colony on the request of unanimity, while speaking to The Hans India here on Tuesday.

"We have been facing such issues since a long time but we can't act strictly as the higher officials are not permitting us to issue notices and take stringent action against such unethical practice.

Even if we got such instructions from the higher-ups we can't implement the same as such people will react violently and more so the local leaders come for their support. In this situation we could only be able to do is to collect the garbage from those who are ready to do the same and leave those who are simply avoiding taking our help," said a sanitary supervisor on the request of unanimity.

Now the question is whether the higher-ups are really serious to overcome the issue of unethical practice being carried out by uncouth or just want to play gimmicks to keep the issue burning.

On several occasions, the civic officials held meetings with sanitary staff and the issue of throwing trash on the open space was discussed at length. The top officials of the GHMC took part in the meetings and even took stock of every aspect behind the unethical practice but failed to take any action on it.

One could find the heaps of garbage a few meters away in areas under Rajendranagar especially in Shastripuram, Kings Colony, Hassan Nagar, Sulaiman Nagar and all other surrounding habitations. Drain channels and storm water lines are often filled with the plastic and other stuff making it difficult for the rain water to flow and pass through the natural routes resulting in stagnation of rain water and sewer.

"The GHMC rule-book clearly says that throwing garbage in open is an offence and violators should be fined and in case of repetition they may be punished with a sentence. GHMC officials are having full powers to act against littering of open plots but they are simply putting onus on the other higher officials and moving on with their policy of escapism," lamented Misbahuddin, Corporator Shastripuram Division. The Deputy Commissioner GHMC Rajendranagar and senior officials could not be contacted for their response.