Extremely poor exempted from Haritha Karma Sena user fee; complete deployment by March

Thiruvananthapuram: People belonging to the extremely poor category will now be exempted from paying user fee levied by Haritha Karma Sena for collecting waste from home. The local bodies will make the decision of who should be exempted, including extremely poor identified by the government. The user fee will also be determined by the local bodies.

Minister M.B Rajesh said in a press conference that those who do not pay the user fee will not get the services of the local bodies. The arrears of those who do not pay the user fee will be considered as house tax arrears and a penalty of 50 percent per month will be levied. 

Inspections will be carried out throughout this month focusing on large establishments that bring out large amounts of waste. Government institutions will also not be exempt from this inspection. Mini material collection facilities (MCF) will be made mandatory in educational institutions and hospitals except Anganwadis.

To make waste management more efficient, 8200 projects worth Rs 1300  crore have been planned. Within a month, deployment and user fee collection of Haritha Karma Sena will become 100 percent. The minister also added that the aim is to achieve complete clean status in solid waste management by March.