GHMC has 4,500 tonnes to collect—and no paper trail
Sanitation workers protested alleged privatisation in Hyderabad, but the document that would settle the dispute remains absent from the public record checked here.
GHMC’s waste-collection figures are public; the proposed privatisation document was not found in the records checked.
Nearly 200 GHMC sanitation workers and Swachh Auto Tipper drivers protested at the civic body’s head office on September 18, opposing what they described as a plan to privatise door-to-door garbage collection. The protest was independently reported, and followed an earlier demonstration near the Assembly on September 12. There was jostling when protesters tried to enter the office; several protesters had also been taken into preventive custody during the earlier protest.
The workers’ fear is clear. The paperwork is not. GHMC’s available RTI record says the city generates and lifts 4,500 metric tonnes of garbage a day, with 92% door-to-door collection and 663 vehicles. It does not mention a new privatisation decision. The official tender page checked for this report did not show a clearly identifiable citywide garbage-collection privatisation tender, though that is not proof that none exists.
Workers said Minister Ponnam Prabhakar had given assurances, but no written assurance was located. Claims about a private contractor, including Re Sustainability, are also unconfirmed by a tender, award notice or agreement. Hyderabad is being asked to trust a plan that nobody has put on paper. The Congress government’s paperwork, so far, appears to be collecting dust more efficiently than garbage.