Mangaluru : The door-to-door waste collection was disrupted in Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) limits for two days on Thursday and Friday.

While workers of Antony Waste Handling Private Limited (AWHPL) stopped collection of waste, garbage was piled up at various places in the city. Meanwhile, residents in all the 60 wards had no option to dispose waste and it was lying in front of their houses for two days. Delay in payment on part of the MCC is said to be the reason for a sudden strike by the workers of AWHPL.

Though AWHPL workers commenced door-to-door waste collection on Saturday, garbage pile-ups remained at many places. They could not complete the work on normal pace as large quantity of waste was lying in front of each house and on roads.

While AWHPL claimed that the city corporation owes them huge amount as due, the civic body said that the amount claimed by the company is in arbitration.

The city corporation has no separate department to deal with the waste disposal system. Moreover, those who look after the waste disposal section are not competent enough to understand the conditions written in the agreement between MCC and AWHPL. Though the MCC invited global tenders thrice, only AWHPL came forward to accept the contract seven years ago. AWHPL has been carrying out the waste management efficiently, even though the city corporation owes huge amount to them. The company has invested over Rs 40 crore and they have to make payments to their workers before 5th of every month and fill fuel to all their vehicles. However, we received April month’s payment on June 5,it is said.

The city corporation has agreed that they owe Rs 10 crore to AWHPL. Meanwhile, previous pending dues to the tune of Rs 25 crore have not been cleared since the matter is in arbitration. The deputy commissioner is the arbitrator as per the agreement, he said, adding, “We have sent two letters to the DC, but our case has not been considered yet.”

Naveen D’Souza, chairman of the health standing committee, said the city corporation has paid Rs 2.10 crore towards payment of April. “The waste collection in the city was stopped because of an internal issue between AWHPL and their workers. We have made an alternative arrangement to collect waste in the city. If they do not continue the door-to-door waste collection, we will serve notice to them and later hand over the work to our contractors,” he added.