Citizens suffer as garbage agencies fail to clean up act

Mumbai: The 'mobilization period' for garbage collection between old and new contractors is taking a toll on the garbage situation in the city. For months now, garbage collection in many wards has taken a hit, with residents alleging that newly-assigned contractors do not have adequate equipment for carrying out the daily chore. Heaps of garbagelieunattended at various collection points in four wards: F-North (Sion-King's Circle), N (Vikhroli), S (Bhandup) and T (Mulund).      "The new agencies need a mobilization period before they can take up the work. We areensuring thatour vehicles are deployed in adequate numbers, but it'll take some time for the issue to be resolved. All the agencies have been asked to take help from other agencies till new equipment is bought," said a senior civic official from the solid waste management department.      The mismatch between the current requirement of compactors and the actual numbers deployed in N, S and T wards has worsened the situation. For instance, of the eightcompactors requiredfor T ward, the new agency has only one; while four earth movers are required, only one is currently being used.      Congress MLC Charan Singh Sapra said, "There is a huge mismatch between the required machinery and the actual numbers deployed on the ground. BMC vehicles are also notbeing used,whichhas aggravated the situation. The civic administration should haveforeseen this problem instead of making residents go through this."      Partly responsible for this issue are members of the standing committee of the BMC, who delayed giving their approval for new garbagecollection contracts.The contracts had expired on May 31. The members had refused to renewcontracts asthecivic administration hadn't made substantial changes to the new contracts. The BMC had then floated a proposal to extend contracts of existing contractors to cover the 2-6 month mobilization period required by new contractors.