thiruvananthapuram the gross collection of haritha karma sena hks units in the city has crossed rs 1 crore for the first time since hks was launched in 2022 the corporation has also achieved 100 coverage of hks in wards in the city in marchcollection figures for march compiled by the health wing show that the total collection of hks in march was rs 109 crore households accounted for the major share of this income with over rs 90 lakh while hks members earned rs 395 lakh from the sale of nonrecyclable dry waste the rest of the collection came from shops enrolled under the schemeas per the figures 138 lakh tonnes of waste were collected by hks units from households and shops in the city in march the feat of achieving rs 1 crore in a month assumes significance since almost a year ago not even 10 households in the corporation gave their nonbiodegradable waste to hks units according to the report on the state of decentralised waste management in keralathe report had noted that thiruvananthapuram corporation was one local body which recorded the highest collection of waste from institutions like hospitals schools restaurants and hotels by hks however when compared to institutional collection only 7 households give their waste to hkseven with the total monthly collection crossing rs 1 crore the civic body has noted that only 56 of total households from which hks collected waste paid the user fee the units covered around 16 lakh households in march the budget for 202324 has set a target of rs 125 crore collections by hks in the citythe civic body plans to achieve this objective by imposing strict measures the corporation council has passed the agenda to implement the order issued by the local selfgovernment department lsgd that mandates producing receipt of hks user fee to receive trade license or any certificate from the civic bodyin january 2023 lsgd issued an order in which it was said that administrative councils may take appropriate decisions to collect 100 user fee of hks from all the houses for door to door dry waste collection the order also cited an example of making the receipt of user feeuser fee card mandatory to be produced along with the applications for various services being offered by the local bodiesalthough there are over 25000 commercial establishments in the city only 6713 institutions pay user fees to hks the agenda notedthe committee pitched the condition of producing a user fee card or receipt of payment of user fee when the trade license is newly issued for 202324 or renewed lsgd has also issued an order by which default in payment of hks user fee could be tabulated along with tax dues