Vijayawada, Oct 2 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Wednesday, announced the scrapping of garbage collection charges in the state.

He made an announcement at the 'Swacchata Hi Seva' programme organised at Machilipatnam on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.

The CM said the previous government of the YSR Congress Party had imposed a 'garbage tax' on people. Charges were being levied for garbage collection from households and heaps of garbage were left uncleared in front of those houses who were not paying it.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president recalled that it had strongly opposed the 'garbage tax' and had promised that if the alliance came to power it would be scrapped.

'Today on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and from this platform of Swachhata Hi Seva, I am announcing that from today garbage tax will not be collected,' he said.

The Chief Minister announced that a decision will be taken in the next meeting of the Cabinet and official orders will be issued.

The collection of user charges from households by civic bodies across Andhra Pradesh was turned into a major poll issue by TDP and its allies.

On October 2, 2021, the then 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.

The civic bodies were collecting Rs 30 per household per month in slums and Rs 120 from individual houses and apartments. The charge varied from Rs 200 to Rs 15,000 per month for business establishments.

Chandrababu Naidu recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on October 2, 2014, and for this, everyone congratulated him. 'A committee was formed on Swachh Bharat in NITI Aayog. I am the chairman of this committee. We launched a programme to generate wealth from the garbage. More than two lakh toilets were built and Andhra Pradesh was made Open Defecation Free (ODF) state,' he said.

He alleged that YSR Congress, which came to power in 2019, destroyed the entire system. He said 85 lakh tonnes of garbage had piled up on roads.

The Chief Minister said he has directed Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana to ensure that the entire garbage is removed within a year.

/IANS