Bhubaneswar, April 24: The dilemma of municipal corporation authorities to classify dust as silt or garbage has rendered a Rs 60-lakh road-sweeping machine idle for about an year.
The officials are in a quandary whether what the machine collects during the sweeping operation can be categorised as solid waste as collected from roads and houses or silt that is picked from drains.
The dilemma is greater because rates for using the machine to lift different categories of waste vary and wrong categorisation might have an adverse impact on the civic body's exchequer.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had decided that private contractors would be paid Rs 2,485 for each tonne of garbage they collect, while for silt the rate is Rs 500 for each tonne. The rates came into force from November 2013, while private firms began collecting garbage in March 2014. It was shortly thereafter that confusion over payment according to categories of the waste arose.
"We have been told not to use the machine, as corporation officials believe that the dust collected by it should be treated as silt," said an official of the Jagruti Welfare Organisation, which owns the road-sweeping machine. The organisation is engaged in garbage collection along with two other private players. Sources said that the machine was lying idle since June 2014.
President of the Jagruti Welfare Organisation Subhendu Mohapatra said the machine was purchased in 2012 as there was demand for better cleaning and they were handling sanitation work in 40 of the then 60 wards in the city.
The machine cleans dust from the roads and keeps it in its 6.5 tonne container. The BMC was paying Rs 1,400 per hour for the use of the machine when the private parties were engaged for the cleaning job.
This machine was mostly used in the central part of the city, where the roads are wide and needed better upkeep. This included roads around the state secretariat, Assembly, governor house and important stretches such as Vidyut Marg, Janpath and Rajmarg. Besides, the machine was used to clean roads before the visit of any high-profile dignitary to the state.
"We approached the corporation saying that as dust was collected from the roads, it should be treated as garbage instead of silt. They agreed upon it in February and we started using it. But later they again told us not to use it," said a Jagruti official.
Mohapatra hoped the corporation officials would take a decision regarding the use of the vehicle. "In February, they decided to treat dust as solid waste and we are hopeful that they would stick to it. This will help in better cleanliness of the city," he said.
City health officer Chandrika Prasad Das, who takes care of sanitation activities, said the agreement signed between the BMC and the private parties did not mention the use of mechanised sweeping. This has been a constraint in using the vehicle, he said.
"However, a committee formed by the commissioner is looking into the matter and we are trying to facilitate use of the machine," he said.
Though city engineer Basant Kumar Parida, who is the chairman of the committee, said it had been decided to treat dust as solid waste and use the machine, there is no official word on the issue from the BMC.
