Wet waste row: Housing societies threaten to dump garbage before civic headquarters; PCMC warns of ‘appropriate action’

“If housing societies resort to dumping waste in front of PCMC headquarters, we will initiate appropriate action against them,” Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh told The Indian Express on Tuesday.

The PCMC chief’s reaction came after the Chikhli-Moshi Pimpri-Chinchwad Housing Societies Federation gave him a letter stating that they would be dumping wet waste in front of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) headquarters in Pimpri from October 2. The federation said it represents 738 housing societies, of which 500 are major residential complexed which generate 100 kg waste on a daily basis.

The federation’s letter comes in the wake of the civic administration’s announcement last week that it would not be lifting wet waste from societies that generate more than 100 kg wet waste every day — terming them as bulk waste generators — October 2 onwards. The civic body asked such housing societies to process the wet waste on their own premises as mandated under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The PCMC chief said instead of deciding to dump garbage before the civic headquarters, the federation should have discussed the issue with him. “We have already discussed the issue with some housing societies. In fact, recently we had a dialogue with a housing society for whom we also held a workshop. We told them how PCMC can help them…”

Singh said the housing societies should bear in mind that PCMC is not the first municipal corporation which is implementing the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. “The rules are not made by PCMC; the rules have been made by the Central government. The rules are being implemented across the country, including by the civic bodies of Indore and PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation),” he said.

Singh said PCMC has told the societies that if they can’t set up the system on their own, they should hand over the wet waste to private operators. “Some societies complained that private operators are charging more money. Therefore, we have decided to empanel private operators who will scientifically process and dispose of the wet waste. We are ready to take up all the grievances of the societies,” he said.

Sanjeev Sangale, chairman of the Moshi-Chilkhi Pimpri-Chinchwad Housing Societies Federation, said, “PCMC is talking about appropriate action against housing societies, which are ready to follow all the rules. But what about the builders who have not set up wet waste processing system in their projects? In several building projects, builders have not even left one inch of space for setting up of such a system.”

Sangale further called for action against builders as well as PCMC officials who gave completion certificates to them.

Sangale said the federation was ready to hold dialogue with PCMC on the issue. “They should also invite three MLAs and two MPs for discussion besides our federation members,” he said.

Dattatrya Deshmukh, chairman of Pimpri-Chinchwad Cooperative Housing Societies Federation, said, “We are not going to dump garbage in front of PCMC…we expect PCMC to resolve our grievances first.”