LAHORE:
The garbage collection door to door, along with the maintenance of cleaning in the city, has become a challenge for Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC).
Homes’s garbage collection has been started at 100 of the 274 union councils in the city so far.
According to the sources, there is concern that the tax recovery of the houses and commercial areas after the provision of the service will be delayed, while LWMC expenses will increase.
Under a provincial cleaning project, the facilities for cleaning and garbage collection of houses will be provided in the villages along with the cities.
The sanitation facilities were already available in Lahore City, but the Punjab government has begun preparations for the garbage collection of the homes of all the union councils together with the cleaning of the streets and the roads.
The deadline of March 30 had been established to provide services at the doors of the residents.
The Punjab government had also approved the acquisition of machinery and employee recruiting in view of the needs of the LWMC before starting the project.
After approval, 2,800 Rickshaws chargers have been recruited and 6,742 employees will be recruited, of which 3,810 have been recruited in the phase.
The process of recruiting 2,932 drivers and other employees is underway.
The number of LWMC employees will increase to more than 18,000.
The LWMC began the pilot project in 20 union tips in the nine cities of Lahore and was given the goal of providing garbage collection facilities door to door of all the union councils for March 30.
According to the plan approved by the provincial government, citizens were asked to pay the garbage tax after providing the services for three months.
They stay a few days before the deadline of March 30, but the garbage collection door to door has begun in the residential areas of only 100 UC, according to the reports, due to the lack of machinery, the negligence of the officers and other reasons.
The sources said that the accusations of fuel theft had also appeared in areas where the service had been launched. Five liters of gasoline are assigned for each rickshaw garbage collection daily, but there have been complaints that they do not complete their entire route.
The LWMC had made agreements with several companies to acquire Rickshaws and another machinery for the door to door collection, but the project has not yet been completely implemented.
A Samanabad resident, Farid Ahmed, said the garbage was not being collected from the houses in their area despite an announcement in this regard. However, another resident, Imtiaz Ahmed, praised the initiative.
LWMC has prepared many business plans so far, including the collection of garbage taxes, which have failed.
Another citizen, Muhammad Rizwan, opposed the imposition of garbage tax. He said people were loaded by inflation and could not pay more taxes.
Answering a question, the executive director of LWMC, Sahib Din Babar, said the program to provide services in villages and cities was run successfully.
He said that the garbage collection door to door had begun in Lahore and its implementation in all UCs should be completed before April 15.
The official said he took time to hire staff and team.
He said that the services would be provided to the people and then the process of collecting the tax that had already been imposed would begin.
