Door-to-door garbage collection along with maintaining cleanliness in the city has become a challenge for the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC).
Garbage collection from homes has so far been started in 100 of the city's 274 union councils.
According to sources, there are concerns that the tax recovery from houses and commercial areas after the provision of the service will be delayed, while the expenses of the LWMC will increase.
Under a provincial cleanliness project, facilities for cleaning and garbage collection from houses will be provided in villages at par with cities.
The sanitation facilities were already available in Lahore city but the Punjab government has started preparations for garbage collection from homes in all union councils along with cleaning the streets and roads.
The deadline of March 30 had been set for providing the services at the doorsteps of residents.
The Punjab government had also approved the acquisition of machinery and recruitment of employees in view of the needs of the LWMC before starting the project.
After the approval, 2,800 loader rickshaws have been purchased and 6,742 employees are to be recruited, of whom 3,810 have been recruited in the phase.
The process of recruiting 2,932 drivers and other employees is under way.
The number of employees of the LWMC will increase to more than 18,000.
The LWMC started the pilot project in 20 union councils in the nine towns of Lahore and was given the target of providing door-to-door garbage collection facilities from all the union councils by March 30.
Under the plan approved by the provincial government, the citizens were to be asked to pay garbage tax after providing them the services for three months.
There are a few days left before the March 30 deadline but the door-to-door garbage collection has been started in the residential areas of only 100 UCs, reportedly due to unavailability of machinery, negligence of officers and other reasons.
The sources said allegations of fuel theft had also surfaced in areas where the service had been launched. Five litres of petrol is allocated for each garbage collection rickshaw daily, but there have been complaints that they do not complete their whole route.
The LWMC had made agreements with various companies for acquiring rickshaws and other machinery for the door-to-door collection but the project is yet to be fully implemented.
A resident of Samanabad, Farid Ahmed, said garbage was not being collected from homes in his area despite an announcement in this regard. However, another resident, Imtiaz Ahmed, praised the initiative.
LWMC has prepared many business plans so far, including garbage tax collection, which have failed.
Another citizen, Muhammad Rizwan, opposed the imposition of the garbage tax. He said then people were burdened by inflation and could not pay more taxes.
Replying to a question, LWMC Chief Executive Officer Sahib Din Babar said the programme to provide services in villages and cities was successfully under way.
He said door-to-door garbage collection had started in Lahore and its implementation in all UCs should be completed by April 15.
The official said it took time to hire staff and equipment.
He said the services would be provided to the people and then the process of collecting the tax that had already been imposed would be started.
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