Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) Chief Cleaning Officer Commander Ikhtiar Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury said a policy has been formulated to prevent the long-standing anarchy and arbitrary collection of money from households in door-to-door garbage collection.
Under the new policy, a minimum service price has been fixed. No one will be allowed to collect additional money beyond this. Tenders have been called for 41 wards to ensure door-to-door garbage collection services and 192 schedules have been sold. After verification, experienced and capable organizations are being given the responsibility of collecting garbage at the prescribed rate.
An urgent press briefing on the city's waste management was held at the CCC conference room on Tuesday afternoon.
He said, “If a complaint is received against any organization, first a warning will be issued against the contractor concerned, and then action will be taken up to the cancellation of the contract. Our aim is to provide a tolerable, orderly and uninterrupted cleaning service to the city residents.”
Blaming unplanned garbage management, he said, “After cleaning the drains, garbage accumulates again. Because, many people throw garbage out of the windows. We want to bring this system on the right track.”
Ikhtiyar Uddi said, “Currently, some companies are collecting up to 2-3 thousand taka from mosques and madrasas, but they do not have any agreement with the City Corporation. Another organization has filed a writ in the High Court, but they are stopping work in some areas. We are taking legal action against them.”
He said, in the new system, each company will be approved after verifying the salary of workers, number of vehicles and capacity according to the area. Priority is being given especially to those who have licenses from the Ministry of Labor. I receive 30-40 calls every day, where people complain that they are not collecting garbage from homes. People say – we are paying money, but we are not collecting garbage. So we want to solve this problem through proper process.”
He l said, “Previously, about 2000 cleaning workers were appointed for door-to-door work, but those who have not been coming to work for three months, we have decided to exclude them on the ‘no work, no pay’ policy and are preparing to hire new workers. Regarding the crisis of the city corporation’s own vehicles and equipment, he said, “Many of the equipments are 20-25 years old. We have to remove garbage by renting excavators or chain dozers. More allocation is needed in this sector to serve the citizens.”
CCC Secretary Md. Ashraful Amin, Chief Revenue Officer Sarwar Kamal, Malaria and Mosquito Control Officer Md. Sharful Islam Mahi and Deputy Chief Cleaning Officer Pranab Kumar Sharma, Dr. S. M. Sarwar Alam, among others, were also present at the press conference.
