Rural garbage service launched

LAHORE:

A project for door-to-door collection of garbage in the provincial capital has been launched, after which the Lahore Waste Management Company's (LWMC) annual budget will increase to Rs22 billion from Rs16 billion.

Under the project, cleaning and garbage collection facilities will also be provided in villages. A deadline of March 30 has been given to roll out the services in all 274 union councils of Lahore.

A garbage tax approved by the Punjab government will be collected from the residential and commercial places after the LWMC will provide the collection services to the citizens.

The LWMC currently spends more than Rs16 billion annually for cleaning and garbage disposal in Lahore city, but the facility is not provided in villages.

Under the Suthra Punjab programme of the provincial government, the collection of garbage from houses along with the cleaning of roads and garbage disposal in the villages has also been started.

A pilot project has been started initially in 20 union councils in nine towns of Lahore. After starting daily garbage collection from homes in the selected UCs, the service will be launched in all union councils by March 30.

Along with the about 70 per cent urban union councils, 300 villages will also be included in the project.

Before starting the project, the Punjab government had approved the acquisition of machinery and recruitment of employees in view of the requirements of the LWMC.

Following the approval, 2,800 loader rickshaws have been purchased. Of the 6,742 employees to be recruited, 3,810 have been hired in the first phase, while 2,932 drivers and other employees are yet to be recruited.

The number of employees in the LWMC is set to increase to more than 18,000 and the annual expenses will increase to Rs22 billion.

The LWMC has prepared several business plans, including the garbage tax recovery, so that a system can be put in place to repay the money borrowed from the Punjab government and reduce the expenses incurred on cleaning the city. However, earlier plans and projects for revenue recovery failed.

The Cabinet Standing Committee on Finance and Development has approved garbage charges of Rs200 per month per home in villages and small urban houses, while Rs400 will be charged for houses of 10 marla to a kanal. A tax of Rs300 to Rs700 has been levied on shopkeepers.

However, a resident of the metropolis, Muhammad Rizwan, said the people were already worried about inflation and unable to pay more taxes.

The sanitation work in several districts of Punjab has been outsourced.

LWMC Chief Executive Officer Sahib Deen Babar said door-to-door collection of garbage had been started in Lahore under the Suthra Punjab programme. Arrangements for garbage collection from homes in all 274 union councils will be completed by March 30.

He said in reply to a question that the collection of the tax imposed by the Punjab government for garbage collection would be started after launching the service adequately.