RAWALPINDI: The Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) has approached the Rawalpindi Municipal Waste Company (RMWC) to collect garbage from the main roads and streets and dump it outside the cantonment area.

The CCB is f acing problems in dumping garbage as no vacant place is available in its jurisdiction.

Besides, it also lacks vehicles to transport the garbage out of the cantonment.

CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz told Dawn that cleanliness in the cantonment area was the main problem as there was a shortage of space and vehicles.

He said at present the CCB was paying Rs275,000 per month to a private land owner at Chakri Road but the local residents had complained that dumping of solid waste there created problems for them.

Mr Imtiaz said the CCB tried to purchase a piece of land outside the city area but no vacant place was available to be used as the landfill site.

Upon this, he said, the CCB contacted the RMWC to collect the garbage and dump it at the Losar landfill site. He said a meeting between theof ficials of the company and the CCB was held two days ago but an agreement could not be reached.

`We wanted the RMWC to establish collection points for the solid waste on main roads and streets. The remaining cleanliness work in the area will be done by the sanitary workers of the CCB,` he said.

He said the RMWC gave the CCB the rates for the collection of garbage on the annual basis and the offer would be discussed in the board meeting.

He said the CCB authorities had also been asked to purchase more vehicles for the collection and transportation of the garbage to be dumped outside. He said funds for the purchase of vehicles had been allocated.

Elected members of the cantonment board are supervising the sanitation department to make the cantonment area neat and clean. He said in the past decade the cantonment was neat and clean but the shortage of staff and machinery hampered the smooth working of the sanitation department.

He said elected members had sought more funds from the Punjab and federal governments for development work and cleanliness in the cantonment area.