Garbage heaps all over,trash Gurgaon millennium city dreams

Pass by the Delhi-Mehrauli road,which has some of the huge malls and plush residential apartments,and people can be seen covering their faces to escape the smell .

Despite all the years that went into the planning of Gurgaon,the absence of a systematic mechanism of garbage collection by municipal authorities is evident as the task is sub-contracted to many people.

One of the ‘thelawalas’ (cart puller) who was seen picking garbage from the area at 12 noon said they pay a contractor for collecting garbage from residences and accumulating it at one place.

“We pay a person (a contractor) who is in charge of removing garbage from particular places. We then sort it out in an open field in Chakarpur village. We dump the waste there and take out bottles,plastics and other usable items and then sell it,” said the garbage collector.

Civic authorities,however,were of the opinion that garbage pile up on the roadside was a thing of the past in Gurgaon.

MCG commissioner Sudhir Rajpal told Newsline on Thursday,“Earlier,garbage was seen piled up on roads sides. But,we have started collecting them systematically. We are also penalising trucks and dumpers that dump garbage or sewerage on empty plots. Recently,six such trucks were penalised on Sohna road and the police were informed about it.”

However,this claim falls flat the minute one enters Sikanderpur area,where huge heaps of garbage remain piled up at the sides of the busy roundabout. Moving towards the cyber city road from the ship building side,the road is narrow due to the metro construction but what adds to the inconvenience of commuters and shopkeepers is the pile of rubbish they stare at almost all day.

“The garbage collectors from colonies often dumping it here. We have repeatedly asked them not to do so but none of them listen to us,” said one of the shopkeepers.

It is the same scene at Sector 56,which houses some of the top MNCs and offices. Garbage and construction debris is littered on the golf course road,turning it into a feeding ground for pigs and stray dogs.

Fed up with the constant sight of garbage and the omnipresent stench,a Gurgaon resident said,“There is no specific (garbage) sorting ground. The garbage pickers take away whatever is usable and it remains right where it is dumped. We have been writing to the authorities time and again but still no action is being taken and the garbage pile up is increasing by the day,” said R S Rathee,president Gurgaon Citizen’s Council.

He said the MCG had initiated a scheme in which door-to-door collection of garbage was supposed to be done but that too has come a cropper. “There is complete lack of centralised focus and monitoring in this issue,” Rathee added.

Rajpal was optimistic about the functioning of the waste treatment plant in Banwari and said its capacity was recently doubled.

“From 200 tonnes,we have

increased it to 400 tonnes”,he said.