Waste of money! No one to drive, 30 e-autos of Haritha Karma Sena rust away

KOZHIKODE: The Corporation has allocated auto-rickshaws to the Haritha Karma Sena for city waste collection, but 30 e-autos are rusting because there are no trained drivers available. There have been complaints about the lack of trucks to collect inorganic waste, while the autos are rusting at Tagore Hall. It's disheartening to see even the ribbons hung for the inauguration now adorning the tops of these idle autos.

Autos were assigned to all 75 wards of the corporation under the Centre's Nagara Sanchayam scheme for garbage collection, with Minister M B Rajesh inaugurating the project on January 12th. In the initial phase, 30 autos were provided. These autos were manufactured at the industry on the campus of the West Hill Govt. Polytechnic.

Initially, it was promised that the vehicles would be handed over to Haritha Karma Sena members with the requisite driving training. However, even after three months, authorities have failed to provide this training. Corporation officials claim there is a lack of interest among potential drivers and that licensed Haritha Karma Sena members will be trained instead.

The original plan was to allocate 75 goods autos, one for each ward but progress stalled thereafter. Registration for the autos was completed last week. If these autos remain unused, the batteries and tires are likely to deteriorate further.