Bhubaneswar, Nov. 30: Get ready to pay for waste collection from your houses in the city by the first week of January.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has decided to collect user fees for the sanitation services. The council meet of the corporation today decided that all households, including those in the slums, will have to pay the fees as the civic body is reeling from financial crisis. All councillors cutting across party lines also wanted the civic administration to ensure that tax collection was done properly.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena admitted that the civic body would have a very effective tax collection mechanism, and for that, citizens would be educated through various activity-based outreach programmes, which would be planned during December. "The user fees ranging between Rs 50 and Rs 250 will be collected from the December last or January first week," he said.

The civic body has also thought about an attractive offer for residents, who would pay up a year's fees at one go. "Three month's fees will be waived if one pays a year's fees at one go. We will give a receipt of a year after receiving fees for nine months," said the mayor.

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said: "All 67 wards in the city under the civic body will have offices to ensure better administration. We already have some wards with offices for councillors, but they are limited. Now, we will ensure that all wards have offices for councillors."

He also said that based on councillors' demand, there might be a hike of Rs 10 lakh in budget per ward, so that developments could continue without any hindrance. At present, each ward gets Rs 70 lakh a year.

Councillor Deviprasad Nanda of ward No. 67 said: "Every year, we get the money under two heads. While Rs 55 lakh is for civic construction, Rs 15 lakh is for development of parks, green space, community centres or gymnasium. We demanded a hike of Rs 20 lakh but would get only Rs 10 lakh."

Another councillor Pritinanda Rout of ward No. 6 said: "As the city is growing in multiple dimension, it is very important to have more funds for development."

The night shelters at Mali Sahi in Kharavela Nagar and on Kargil Road at Bhimpur have been declared as shelter for urban homeless from today onwards. The Odisha Patita Uddhar Samiti has been appointed by the corporation for efficient management of the shelter houses.

Samiti secretary Abharani Choudhury could be contacted on her cell phone for the night shelters.