A Chandigarh resident received a shocking bill of Rs 73,000 for garbage collection from the local civic body for his three-story building rented out to small businesses. Sanjeev Grover, who owns the building in Sector 26, discovered the Rs 72,900 bill, with no previous dues, when he received the property tax notification for the fiscal year 2024-2025.
Previously, Grover would receive a bill of Rs 200 per floor, totaling Rs 600 monthly for the building, which spans 16×66 square yards. “I was shocked to see such an exorbitant amount raised against my three-floor building. Even a restaurant may not have been issued such a hefty garbage collection amount. On the first floor, there is a vendor’s account office, the second floor has a fruit company’s office, and on the ground floor, there is a rice trader. They don’t generate a huge volume of waste,” Grover told The Indian Express.
Grover mentioned that a similar bill was sent last year but was withdrawn after significant complaints. “The previous system of garbage collectors collecting waste and taking Rs 200 per month was put in place. But this year again, they have issued such an inflated amount,” he said.
Chandigarh Mayor Kuldeep Kumar assured The Indian Express that he would “certainly get it checked”. “Residents shouldn’t be burdened unnecessarily like this. This amount for waste collection fees is huge. But I will ask the staff to immediately check this.”
In 2019, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation took over waste collection from independent collectors, deploying 399 garbage collection vehicles to manage dry and wet waste. This change was due to the civic body’s concerns that independent collectors were not covering all households and shops, which affected Chandigarh’s ranking. The transition faced opposition as waste collectors feared job losses.
Last year, the civic body introduced new revised rates for waste collection fees.
