Coimbatore corpn to outsource solid waste management:
City mayor Kalpana Anandakumar has given approval to outsource garbage collection in all the 100 corporation wards, following a letter from the director of municipal administration giving a seven-day ultimatum to accord her consent.
The city corporation floated a tender in February to engage a private agency to manage the city’s waste at a cost of ₹170 crore a year. The city generates at least 1,250 tonnes of waste a day. While a resolution was supposed to be introduced and passed at the council meeting in May in this regard, it was introduced only in June. However, councillors expressed concerns over contract workers losing their jobs, if garbage collection were to be outsourced, and postponed the passage of the resolution seeking more time for discussion.
Against this backdrop, the director of municipal administration, S Sivarasu, wrote to the mayor on July 7, asking her to give consent to the resolution within seven days, considering the urgency of the matter. In the letter, he stated that the work would be carried out through the corporation commissioner if she failed to give her consent within seven days. If the direction of the director is not complied within the specified time, the director could allow the work to be carried out through the corporation commissioner after sending a report to the government in this regard.
And the expenditure incurred in the process shall be met from the municipal funds,” the letter read.
The mayor gave her approval in the second week of July and the same was communicated to the director.
Corporation commissioner M Prathap said, “Now that the mayor has given her approval, the subject will be placed before the council for its acceptance.”
As per the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Body Rules 2023, which came into effect a few months ago, corporation commissioners could send a report to the government and take up the work, if council meetings were not conducted for two consecutive months, another official said. “Corporation commissioners could also take up the work for which financial allocations have been made or any other work of public importance in the event that the resolution is adjourned to the next meeting without a valid reason. They did not have such powers earlier,” the official said.
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