Balangir, June 10: A private agency is expected to take up the job of solid waste management in the town. This comes in the wake of municipality workers’ union ending their opposition to the privatisation of the job.
Sources said officials of the Centre for Environment and Cooperation and Research Development (CECRD), a Hyderabad-based agency keen to take up the job, would soon visit Balangir to do the groundwork and planning for the job.
The agency would take up the job in 11 wards of the municipality (ward Nos. 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 19) from July 1. President of Western Orissa Municipality Workers’ Federation Lalit Nayak said he had never opposed the project.
“It was never my intention to oppose the project. I just want to ensure that the municipality workers don’t lose their jobs. There were 400 odd workers in the municipality about 15 years ago when the population of the town was much less. Now, the population has gone up and the number of wards in the municipality have increased from 14 to 21. But the number of workers in the municipality has decreased to 207. Several workers are engaged in the residences of the top-level district officials,” he said.
Nayak also criticised municipal authorities for showing undue favour to CECRD. “Why have they not gone for open tender for engaging an agency for the work? The municipal authorities have on their own decided to engage CECRD. This is something, which is not done in good spirit,” he said.
Executive officer of Balangir municipality Pradeep Gardia said the project had been delayed as the workers’ union had not cooperated with the authorities.
“We have Rs 32 lakh with us to spend on solid waste management. The provision in the programme makes it mandatory that we can’t pay directly to any employee. We have to outsource an agency to implement the programme to which the employees’ union had been opposing,” Gardia said.
About three years ago, chief project officer of CECRD R.K. Upadhyaya had mooted a scientifically developed project of aerobic digestion of solid waste management.
The project was shifted to Patnagarh after the employees’ union opposed it describing it as a sort of privatisation of the municipality.
