1 month ago
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Hyderabad: Garbage may be an eyesore for all, but don’t just trash it yet. In Hyderabad, one person’s waste is another’s treasure and can get folks through the tough challenge of having their daughters married.
“It is becoming a practice for operators of Swach auto tippers (SAT) collecting trash from homes, especially in the newer city areas with tall residential towers, to promise guaranteed incomes to potential grooms through trash collection charges,” according to a city official familiar with this rising trend in the city.
Some SAT operators are learnt to be earning up to Rs 2 lakh a month from collection charges. They promise grooms a guaranteed income of around Rs 20,000 by portioning out their route by ‘handing over’ some large residential blocks.
“We have also come across some instances where promissory notes were handed over to grooms guaranteeing such monthly income, something like a guaranteed dowry by SAT operators, who performed marriages of their daughters in this manner,” the official said.
Efforts to locate those who succeeded in this turn-trash-into-wedding-proposal practice did not bear fruit as officials were worried about possible blowback and protests from SAT operators.
They have a stranglehold on primary garbage collection operations from homes, which have also turned into somewhat of a challenge for GHMC when it comes to enforcing discipline and taking the next step on waste collection from homes.
Sources said that a proposal to introduce battery operated vehicles for collecting garbage from homes by Ramky, the concessionaire contracted to collect and process all garbage in the city, is pending amid fears of a backlash from SAT operators, who may go on strike to protect their incomes.
A GHMC official said that the civic body hopes to introduce a hybrid system where both the existing SATs and the proposed system can coexist but no decision has been taken as yet.
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