Premium
This is an archive article published on October 9, 2022

Representatives of housing societies stage walk-out from session on wet waste disposal as PCMC officials arrive late

Had to attend meet called by Ajit Pawar on the same issue, civic officials

Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), ajit pawar, waste disposal, Waste disposal system, ajit pawar meet, Pune news, Pune city news, Pune, Maharashtra, Maharashtra government, India news, Indian Express News Service, Express News Service, Express News, Indian Express India NewsAjit Pawar urged the administration to give more time to the society members to set up the wet waste processing system. He also urged the PCMC officials to find a permanent solution — PCMC officials

A SESSION convened by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) at Nilu Phule auditorium in Pimple Gurav turned chaotic after members of the housing societies staged a walked-out protest over the absence of civic officials in the venue.

The PCMC said that the officials reached the venue late as they went to attend a meeting convened by Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar on the same topic. PCMC officials said Ajit Pawar’s meeting was planned at the last minute and therefore the meeting with members of housing societies got delayed.

The PCMC had planned an interactive session from 11 am to 1 pm on Saturday on the issue of disposal of wet waste by housing societies that had been categorised as bulk waste generators. The representatives of various federations turned up at the venue by 10.30 am. However, till 12.30 pm, no PCMC official was available and there was no clarity on when they would arrive.

Story continues below this ad

“We arrived before time, but no official turned up. There was no announcement and we waited till 12.30 as to whether the meeting will take place or whether the officials will arrive. Then we walked out in protest against PCMC’s non-serious approach to a serious issue,” Dattatrya Deshmukh, chairman of Pimpri-Chinchwad Cooperative Housing Societies Federation, said.

Uday Sabde, secretary of Park Royale housing society, Pimple Saudagar, said, “Though the representatives of the housing societies turned up, the civic officials were not seen. Most of the representatives had already left by the time PCMC officials appeared for the meeting. PCMC has shown it lacks seriousness in handling such a sensitive issue.”

However, PCMC Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ajay Charthankar denied that the meeting did not take place. “It is true that officials could not make it on time as there was another meeting on the same subject convened by Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar. As soon as the meeting was over, we reached the Nilu Phule auditorium for the interactive session,” he said.

“Ajit Pawar urged the administration to give more time to the society members to set up the wet waste processing system. He also urged the PCMC officials to find a permanent solution to the raging issue,” officials said.

Story continues below this ad

Charthankar said that Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh answered a range of questions raised by representatives of the federations. “He interacted nearly for an hour and a half with the representatives and answered every question raised regarding the processing of wet waste. The civic chief offered them various alternatives,” he said.

However, Deshmukh denied the claims by the Deputy Municipal Commissioner and said that hardly anyone from the housing societies attended the session. “I think the PCMC Commissioner interacted with private parties dealing in compost and their staff. I am confident that hardly anyone from housing societies attended the session as we all had left by 1 pm,” he said.

Charthankar said that the PCMC cited various options to the members of the housing societies regarding the processing of wet waste in the meeting. “Those societies that do not have space to set up wet waste processing plants can hand over their waste to private parties, who are being empanelled by PCMC. Societies generating 100 kg of waste every day and those which have 70 or more flats are considered bulk waste generators. For them, it is mandatory to process the waste at their end. Either they should do it on their own or rope in private parties,” he said.

The deputy municipal commissioner said that private contractors, who turn wet waste into compost charge around Rs 100 per flat per month. “A society member has to pay Rs 2-3 per day. Besides, with new technology, around 100 kg of waste can be converted into 10 kg of compost. Newer technologies are available in the market which PCMC will help societies get access to,” he said.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Loading Taboola...
Advertisement