Civic body to collect user charges

Tirupati: After the effective implementation of plastic ban, the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) authorities have decided to collect user charges from the residents and commercial establishments for collection of garbage.

The new rule has come into effect from Wednesday onwards. Earlier, municipal authorities have been collecting money from the few residential localities where the civic body has engaged contract workers for collection of the garbage from door-to-door.

Aiming 100 per cent door-to-door garbage collection, MCT Commissioner V Vijaya Rama Raju has entrusted the task of collecting garbage from every household for Tirupati-based voluntary organisation RASS. The NGO has appointed 10 persons for collection of garbage.

They would start garbage collection within two or three days. User charges for residential category are Rs 30, hotels and guest houses Rs 200, unstarred hotels Rs 500, hotels below 3-star Rs 1,500 and above 3-star rated hotels must to pay Rs 3,000 towards user charges.

The MCT officials are saying that with the implementation of new rule, collection of unofficial money by few employees of the Public Health Department will come to an end.

Moreover, there is a chance to reduce the work burden on public health workers and delink the garbage collection work totally from them. The MCT has allotted 7 to 8 wards to each NGO representative to collect garbage and user charges from the residents of their respective wards.

Interestingly, all the hotels and other commercial establishments are showing interest to pay user charges than paying unofficial money to few workers of the civic body for clearing the garbage. “We have organised awareness programmes among the residents and commercial establishments on collection of user charges for garbage collection,” the MCT chief V Vijaya Rama Raju told to The Hans India on Wednesday.