Civic body’s move to reduce garbage vehicles criticised

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s decision to reduce the number of garbage vehicles and reroute their path has come in for sharp criticism from corporators across parties, who have said that heaps of garbage lying in several parts of the city due to this move is the civic administration’s “Diwali gift” to Mumbaikars. The civic body has reduced the number of garbage vehicles in the city by nearly 15 per cent from November 1.

According to civic officials, the BMC has brought down the number of garbage vehicles as there is a drop in the quantity of waste generated in the city. While there were 853 large garbage vehicles, the number has now comebeen reduced to 728. Mini compactors too, have been reduced to 441 from the earlier 556.

Raising the issue in the civic standing committee meeting on Monday, opposition leader Ravi Raja from the Congress said that the decision to reduce number of garbage vehicles has resulted in several parts of the city being inundated with trash. “Why has the BMC reduced the number of garbage vehicles when the quantum of garbage has not reduced,” he asked. Shiv Sena’s Rajul Patel said, “People are asking us about the garbage accumulated in their areas, whereas we are totally clueless about it.”

In his repky, deputy municipal commissioner Vishwas Shankarwar said, “Earlier, the city used to generate 9,000 metric tonnes of waste, which has now come down to 7,200 metric tonnes. As the quantity of garbage has reduced, the number of vehicles have also reduced proportionately.”