Bhubaneswar, April 25: The municipal corporation's insistence on imposing user fees for collection of garbage from residents and commercial establishments reached a flashpoint here today with a BJP-led protest turning violent.
The BJP, which ransacked the corporation's office this morning, demanded withdrawal of fee and threatened to launch a mass campaign against the decision from May 1.
The party had earlier threatened to gherao the corporation's office during the monthly council meeting of the civic body on the issue. The party had described the corporation's decision as unconstitutional and organised a road blockade in front of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) office. Around three platoons of police were deployed to bring the situation under control.
"Users fee collection for garbage disposal from residents and shopkeepers in Bhubaneswar by the civic body is unconstitutional. This is violation of the people's rights. We will make the masses aware of this and launch a protest against this illogical rule of the corporation," said BJP state vice president Samir Mohanty.
Following the ruckus this morning at the BMC office, Mohanty, BJP district president Harekrushna Khuntia and some other members of the party were called for a discussion with municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar on this. However, the talk failed as Kumar said the corporation was going by the central government's guidelines and there was no chance of amending the rules.
"According to the revised rules of solid waste management, it is mandatory for the urban local bodies to collect user fees from the residents and shopkeepers. We are not going against the rules. If we don't implement this rule in the city, we will be liable for stoppage of various funds from the central government," said Kumar.
BJP district president Khuntia said the party members would visit every ward, meet the citizens and ask them not to pay the user fees mandated by the civic body.
"We will reach out to the people and launch ward-level protests from May 1. We will ask people not to pay the fees and if the civic body officials force us to pay, we will oppose them," said Khuntia.
Angry at the ransacking of the corporation office by the BJP members, mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said legal action would be taken against those responsible for the incident. He said the corporation would go by the rules and start collecting users fees for garbage disposal from city dwellers with effect from March 2016.
"Under no circumstances can we scrap the rule of collecting user fees. It is a mandatory clause of the central government and also according to the Orissa Municipal Corporation Act of 1936, such collections is completely legal. The collection of user fees will help us make the city clean and the people healthy," said Jena.
Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said once the user fees were implemented, the civic body would be able to collect around Rs 25 crore a year from this. He said every year, the civic body spent close to Rs 40 crore for the management of solid waste in the city.
According to the rules, the user fee would be collected from every household as part of a door-to-door collection service of the BMC. The owner of a house of up to 80sqm will pay Rs 50 as solid waste management charges, for 80-120sqm, Rs 100 and Rs 200 for houses bigger than that. The charges are different for hotels, malls, hospitals and commercial establishments.
Earlier, the municipal corporation had decided to implement the user fees from 2015. It had, in January this year, said the residents would have to pay the fees for 2015-16 as arrear. However the decision invited protests from various quarters and the BMC later decided not to collect the fees for the previous financial year. The people who have already paid will be eligible for readjustment of the amount in the current financial year of 2016-17.
