Mangalore : The Mangalore City Corporation launched door-to-door collection of solid waste 25 days ago, but the odd collection time in some wards has made the efforts go waste. For instance, workers reach Kodical at around noon to pick waste.

“By that time none of us are at home. How does one hand over the waste to them (at that time),” asked Arun Kumar, an employee of an oil marketing company. “Why can’t they come before 9 a.m.” Mr. Kumar said that his office-going tenants faced the same problem.

Mr. Kumar said that picking the waste in the morning would be convenient for all, especially office-goers.He said that if the waste was kept outside the house, it would attract street dogs. Mr. Kumar said that his family and his tenants had no option but to throw the waste in a corporation bin. On Saturday, he waited till noon for the workers to turn up for collecting the waste. But they did not turn up, he said.

Jayaram of Gorigudda said that solid waste in his residential area was picked up at 3 p.m. Nemu Kottari of Jeppu said solid waste was not being collected from doorsteps in Jeppu area and so he was dumping it in the corporation bin. He said that many were throwing the waste on the banks of Gujjara Kere, a water body at Jeppu.

Dinesh of Aranthabettu, a residential area behind the National Institute of Technology–Karnataka (NIT-K), under Ward No. 2, said that door-to-door collection of solid waste had not begun in that area.

A random check revealed that the door-to-door collection of solid waste drive started by the civic body on December 12, 2012, was yet to become a reality in all wards and it was yet to spread to all areas within many wards where it started.
 Joint Commissioner K. Srikant Rao told The Hindu that the civic body had received 18 complaints till Monday since the drive started. The complainants said the solid waste was not picked from their doorsteps. The corporation was addressing those complaints. Mr. Rao said the corporation would take steps to collect the waste from doorsteps either before 10 a.m. or late in the evenings. The Joint Commissioner agreed that there were initial hiccups. Mr. Rao said the drive was a success in Mannagudda ward. The waste was being collected in the ward.

Manjunath R. Shetty, Environment Engineer at the corporation, said it would take at least two months for the drive to stabilise in all 60 wards.

Mr. Shetty said the drive was effective in Ashok Nagar and Lady Hill areas. Though the drive has begun in the surroundings of Mangaladevi Temple it had yet to pick up in Jeppu and Padavu Central.

Regarding publicity for the drive taken up only in central business district area, he said MCC had taken up the publicity drive in some residential areas. Last week, it was done in Kudroli where the ward councillor and civic body officials visited some houses. It would continue in phases in other wards, he said. – The Hindu