Waste collection work crippled in Nagpur as BVG workers go on strike

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Nagpur: The door-to- door waste collection work in Nagpur was crippled on Sunday as sanitation workers employed by one of the agencies – BVG – staged an agitation for non-payment of salaries. Citizens had top face enormous hardships as waste was not collected from their houses.

The two agencies BVG and AG Enviro – assigned the job of collecting waste from house to house by NMC, are already in trouble as a 5-member committee set up by Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari is probing the shabby working style of the two agencies.

The AG Enviro pays salaries to its employees regularly by the 10th of every month. But the sanitation workers of BVG were being denied their salaries on time. Their salaries are paid late by 17th or 18th of the month putting them in financial problems. When a meeting with officials of BVG could not resolve the issue, the sanitation workers went on a strike on Sunday hitting the door-to-door waste collection hard. They have demanded the agency to pay their salaries by 10th of every month. On getting an assurance in this regard, the workers called their strike and resumed work.

Meanwhile, the NMC committee, headed by Avinash Thakre, Ruling Party Leader, directed the two agencies to streamline the sanitation work and make it easier for citizens to dispose ofthe household waste. The panel asked the officials of two agencies to submit an affidavit regarding details of vehicles and manpower deployed for garbage collection. The information will be submitted to the civic body. The five-member committee was constituted by Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari under the Chairmanship Thakre to probe allegations against AG Enviro and BVG of irregularities in their work. Mayor had promised to form a committee on the adjournment motion of Opposition leader Tanaji Wanve in the general body meeting last month.

Officials of two companies submitted their say during the hearing. Mahesh Mahajan, Chairperson, Medical Services and Health Committee, Nitin Sathwane, Corporator, Additional Commissioner Sanjay Nipane, Rajesh Bhagat, Deputy Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, Dr Pradeep Dasarwar, Nodal Officer, Ranjana Lade, Corporation Secretary, along with zonal officers of all the ten zones and representatives of both the companies were present during the hearing. Initially, a letter of complaint was read out by Leader of Opposition Tanaji Wanve and corporator Nitin Sathwane regarding both the companies. Apart from this, a video clip filed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) group leader Jitendra Ghodeswar was also shown. This was followed by a review of performance of both the companies in all ten zones.