VMC misses June 30 deadline; no word from civic body about the progress

The recent change in guard at the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) and other factors seem to have cast a shadow on the initiatives of making city garbage-free by June 30 (Sunday).

Outgoing Municipal Commissioner M. Rama Rao had announced that the city would be made free garbage by streamlining the mechanism of collecting only segregated garbage and sending every bit of it to waste treatment plants instead of dumping it in landfills.

Stringent action

Bulk waste generators including apartment dwellers, hoteliers and others have been warned of hefty fines if on-site compost units are not set up as per the solid waste management regulations. Also, the officials and workers of the public health wing of the municipal corporation had faced suspensions and even demotion for negligence towards making the city garbage free, in the past.

Mr. Rao was transferred more than a week ago and V. Prasanna Venkatesh took charge as the Municipal Commissioner. He also promised to make the city garbage-free while assuming charge on June 24. However, the target of doing it by June 30 has been missed or ignored as it appears.

There was no word from the civic body about the progress of the initiative. However, Mr. Venkatesh took stock of the waste treatment plants recently.