Pune: Around 250 waste pickers associated with SWaCH residing in Patil Estate have stopped working as the area is sealed due to increasing coronavirus positive patients. They fear that they will lose their remuneration for the month.
Most waste pickers collect their fees from the residents at the end of the month. But now they fear that they will lose the money to the alternative arrangements made by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in their areas.
“When the Patil Estate slum was sealed, SWaCH waste pickers from that particular slum were asked to stop collection, and the PMC decided to temporarily assign ghantagadis for covering some areas serviced by these waste-pickers. In the interest of public safety, they have refrained from providing waste-collection service for a short period of time till the sealing measures ease or they are safely evacuated from the slum. SWaCH staff will assist PMC in assigning an alternative collection system through PMC vehicles as far as possible,” a statement issued by SWaCH said.
However, SWaCH collectors are now concerned because this change has come towards the end of the month when the user fees are due from citizens.
Hence, SWaCH members have called upon citizens to pay user fees only to them directly and not to any other persons. They have sought special permission to collect user fees from the PMC in the near future.
PMC has also appealed to the people in this regard. Apart from that, the SWaCH has also suggested that the citizens could compost their biodegradable waste at home so that delays or disruptions will not cause too much inconvenience in this situation of crisis.
PMC Solid Waste Management Department Head Dnyaneshwar Molak also said, “We are sending PMC workers as well as ghantagadis on alternate days in the areas where the waste pickers from Patil Estate collected garbage.”
