The Madurai corporation submitted before the Madras high court that steps are being taken to purchase batteries for the 49 battery-operated vehicles which are not functional. Following this, the court disposed of a plea which sought a direction to ensure that the battery-operated vehicles are in a working condition for effective door-to-door garbage collection in Madurai.The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by R Manibharathi, an advocate from Madurai district. He stated that he came across a news article ‘Not enough vehicles to collect garbage in Madurai West zone’ published in The Times of India dated December 15, 2022. He obtained information from the corporation through the Right to Information Act and came to know that out of 509 battery-operated vehicles, 257 are under repair.
The sanitary workers, especially women, find it hard to pull the tricycles when they go for door-to-door garbage collection. Hence, the petitioner moved the court seeking a direction to the corporation authorities to repair the vehicles and to ensure that all the 509 vehicles are in running condition. He also sought to set up one maintenance unit for the vehicles in all the five zones in the corporation.
During the course of hearing, the standing counsel for the corporation filed a report and submitted that as on date, except for 49 battery-operated vehicles, all other vehicles are functional and are being used for door-to-door garbage collection. These 49 vehicles are not in operation because of the batteries. The corporation has decided to float a tender for purchasing the batteries and as soon as the tender process is over, the repaired non-functional vehicles will be put to use at the earliest.
The counsel further submitted that apart from these vehicles, garbage is also collected with the use of tricycles and trucks. In narrow streets and lanes, tricycles are being used for the purpose of collecting garbage.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and justice C Kumarappan observed that it is for the corporation to manage door-to-door garbage collection. It is also for the corporation to consider that all the battery-operated vehicles are put to proper use and to take action against the supplier if some loss is caused within the warranty period. In light of the report filed by the corporation, the judges disposed of the petition.
