How Kurnool sanitary staff dumped garbage at shopping complex over user charges

Kurnool: Beware! If you are not paying user charges, sanitary staff might dump garbage in front of your house or shop.

Such an incident happened in Kurnool Municipal Corporation recently when the sanitary staff dumped a large heap of garbage in front of Anantha Shopping Complex. Shop owners had failed to pay user charges for three months.

This user charge for garbage is a part of the Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP) project launched in 45 cities. It includes 16 municipal corporations and 29 municipalities. With around 500 shops established in the Anantha Shopping Complex, user charges are Rs 100-500 depending on the business and the garbage generated. Shop owners alleged that they were already paying shop license fees and property taxes. "Why should we pay user charges for generating garbage," they said.

Speaking to News Meter, Municipal Commissioner D.K. Balaji said: "The shop owners in that particular complex did not pay user charges for three months. As far as dumping garbage is concerned, there has been a miscommunication between the staff and shop owners. We will have a meeting with the complex association to solve the issue."

As per the data available, a total of Rs 1.29 crore user charges were collected from January 2022 to date. While shops pay between Rs 100-and 500, houses pay between Rs 60 and120 every month. Sources said that 40% of charges are unpaid.