Looks like Thane housing societies' war with Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) over Solid Waste Management (SWM) is yet to conclude. Now, the residents of Thane housing societies has threatened to move to court against TMC's solid waste management decree which was 'imposed' upon them.
With the deadline of October 31 to take up their own solid waste management nearing and TMC unwilling to have a dialogue with the citizens over the issue, the residents have taken this decision seeking a permanent solution.
"We will move court this week against the TMC. We will also lodge a door-to-door campaign to make the citizens aware of these pressure tactics of the civic body of not having a dialogue with citizens over SWM," said Kasber Augustine, president of Thane Citizens Foundation (TCF).
The decision was taken on Saturday evening when 20 representatives of over 150 housing societies in Thane held a meeting to discuss the "unfair shift of entire responsibility of waste management on citizens by the local civic administration".
"As per the Municipal Solid Waste Management (SWM) Act, 2000 waste generators should explore the possibility of source segregation and processing of waste. Nowhere does it say that it is the responsibility of the citizens," says P Modi a resident from Ghodbunder Road. "We are ready for waste segregation but most societies do not have the space to do it," he added.
Reiterating the same stance, Kasber said, "The TMC itself does not have a waste processing centre. How can it expect the citizens to set one up," he asked. "The TMC can have its own processing unit where it can process the segregated waste collect from us. We are ready to share the responsibility with TMC. but dumping it on us completely is not the solution."
Commenting on citizens' plight TMC house leader Naresh Mhaske said that even the corporators are with the citizens on this issue. "We will soon extend the October 31 deadline. Residents need not worry," says he.
The residents, however, say that just deadline extension is not the solution. "We are in favour of SWM, but it should be a win-win situation for both residents and the TMC. The deadline extension is not a solution," he says.
This is the third time that the TMC has extended its deadline for the housing societies to set up their own compost system.
Initially, the TMC's solid waste management department had announced that it would stop collecting garbage from big housing societies from June 15.
Later the TMC commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal directed officials to extend the deadline for a month so that residents can get more time to adopt the waste management system.
In July, the civic body extended its one-month deadline till the end of monsoon, i.e. October 31.
Deadlines
- TMC house leader Naresh Mhaske said that the civic body has plans to extend Oct 31 deadline
- The residents, however, say that just deadline extension is not the solution
- This will be the third time that the TMC has extended its deadline
