The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) issued a point-by-point rebuttal to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) after the auditor rapped the municipal body for its 'inefficiency' in solid waste management.
After the civic body submitted its report which stated that the quantity of solid waste collected in Hyderabad doubled in five years, the audit report found that there was no mechanism to assess the quantity of waste generated or collected within GHMC limits as there were no weigh bridges at transfer stations.
Garbage collected from households and colonies are, as a whole, often brought to transfer stations. From there, it is shifted to a larger truck and sent to the city's main dumping ground at Jawaharnagar.
The CAG said that the quantum of municipal solid waste collected in GHMC limits was not accurate due to the lack of weigh bridges.
In its response, the GHMC said that it had the mechanism to record the quantity of waste collected in the city as there are centralised weigh bridges at the Jawaharnagar landfill.
“Since all the existing 21 transfer stations do not enough space, the weighing is done in Jawaharnagar and the data is sent to the server of GHMC and an independent engineer monitors this. Every vehicle is properly weighed in a scientific manner and CCTV cameras are available to capture the process," the GHMC said.
"The weighbridges are also tested periodically by the Weights and Measures Department for their accuracy and efficacy and standards are being maintained. Hence, it is incorrect to say that they no mechanism to assess the quantity of waste collected," it added.
The municipal body also pointed out that individual weighbridges were being erected at transfer stations where there is no space constraint.
The CAG also criticised GHMC’s move of distributing 43.65 lakh dustbins (for dry and wet) and stated that segregated waste constituted only 27% of the total waste even after distributing the bins.
The CAG also rapped the GHMC for not completely upgrading the three transfer stations as promised and not constructing five new transfer stations.
"The GHMC has, as per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, already distributed 44 lakh bins to all households in 2015 and through various Swachh Bharat initiatives, motivated the citizens to segregate waste at the household level," the municipal body said in its response.
The GHMC said that the segregation would require an attitudinal change and a behavioural change in the citizens.
"The 27% figure that was mentioned actually pertains to the segregation achieved by Swachh Autos alone. Segregated waste is not being reflected in other vehicles, such as the trucks since a monitoring mechanism needs to be placed. It will be arranged shortly," they added.
In its report, the CAG also said that GHMC must upgrade its transfer stations and general amenities, such as putting a computerised system in place for billing and also tracking the movement of the vehicles.
"GHMC has already started the process for modernisation of the Transfer Stations. Further, all the vehicles carrying solid waste to the Landfill site have been provided with a GPS system and the same is being tested for its operational utilisation," the response stated.