Levying of garbage collection charges becomes a key poll issue in Andhra Pradesh

Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh raise concerns over civic bodies collecting user charges from households before elections.

The collection of user charges from households by civic bodies across the State has been turned into a major poll issue by opposition parties ahead of the general elections in the State.

On October 2, 2021, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP)-Jagananna Swachha Sankalpam programme, in accordance with the Centre’s urban reforms under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. As part of the CLAP programme, a fee for collecting garbage from households was introduced.

At present, civic bodies in the State collect ₹30 per household per month in slums and ₹120 from individual houses and apartments. The charge varies from ₹200 to ₹15,000 per month when it comes to business establishments.

“When we are already paying for garbage collection in the form of a separate component under property tax, what is the need for civic bodies to impose an additional burden on the common man in the form of garbage collection tax? Is it not the constitutional duty of the civic body to collect garbage from streets and households?” asks M.V. Anjaneyulu of the Taxpayers’ Association in Vijayawada.

What is interesting to know is that the tax thus collected from households does not go to the municipality, but instead to the private agency that provides the CLAP vehicles. In Vijayawada, for example, nearly ₹1.20 crore that is collected in the form of user charges on garbage collection goes to an agency which provides the CLAP vehicles and pays the drivers, says a civic official requesting anonymity.

There are a total of 225 CLAP vehicles in the city.

“We were initially told that the money collected from us would also go towards garbage segregation. However, this does not seem to be happening. In Anantapur, for instance, there is no segregation being done. Moreover, the CLAP vehicles did not come for three months recently,” says A. Chandra Sekhar of the Human Rights Forum (HRF).