THE Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) owes Puran Brothers Disposal Inc in excess of $40M as of January to now, and the company intends to pull its services if city officials continue to ignore them.Kalesh Puran, manager of the garbage-disposal company, told the Chronicle in an invited comment on Sunday that his company recently wrote City Hall on the matter but is yet to receive a response.

Furthermore, he said the company has been calling everyday trying to make contact with the M&CC officers and that a word has been promised within this week.

“If nothing happens this week, then we might have to begin pulling our services. But we are hoping for something to happen,” Puran said.

But Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, also in an invited comment, said she is not aware that the situation is as serious as warranting a discontinuation of garbage collection.

“There is so much negativity around. If someone wants information, let them come in to the City Council. We took over from the previous administration owing; we have always owed. But as far as I am aware, there is no talk whatsoever of garbage collectors pulling their services.”

Over the years, timely payments to garbage collectors by the M&CC have often been a problem, resulting in the former withholding its services from the city.

Just one year ago, citizens in Groups 7 and 8 of the Georgetown wards had been without garbage-collection services for more than two weeks, because M&CC had not paid the $40M it owes Puran Brothers.

Group 7 comprises Costello Housing Scheme; West, East and North-East La Penitence; Middle Road, La Penitence; Jeeboo Land, and an area known as Extra Nuclear, while Group 8 comprises Queenstown, Alberttown, North and South Cummingsburg, Kingston and Woolford Avenue.

Four trucks belonging to Puran’s had to be parked and workers had to be sent on annual leave.

“The company values its employees because it often finds difficulty recruiting people for the job. The trucks were designed for garbage-collection, and hence cannot be used in the meantime for other purposes,” Puran told this newspaper.