Chandigarh mayor asks councillors to monitor waste segregation in their areas

Mayor Raj Bala Malik on Friday shot off a letter to all councillors, asking them to monitor the segregation of waste in their respective wards on every Saturday and Sunday.

Sources said the move follows the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT’s) latest dictum asking the municipal bodies across the country to achieve 100% waste segregation by March 31. The NGT’s dictum also stated that there was a possibility of ₹10 lakhfine per month fine on those flouting the order from April 1.

While MC commissioner KK Yadav said they are putting all efforts to comply to the NGT’s directions, Chandigarh MC seems in no position to achieve the target. A major hurdle is that private waste collectors are still following the old system of collecting waste with ‘rehris’. It is not possible to collect the waste in segregated format with these ‘rehris’. Another problem is that the MC does not have secondary collection points to separately store dry and wet waste.

EXPERIMENT FAILED LAST OCTOBER

In October 2019, the MC had made it mandatory on residents to hand over segregated waste to the collectors. While several residents complied to the order, the system failed at the level of private waste collectors and MC’s secondary collection points (sehaj safai kendras) where dry and wet waste could not be stored separately. In November last year, the MC had approved a proposal to buy 400 mechanical vehicles for private collectors so that dry and wet waste could be collected separately, but there was a delay in the purchase of these vehicles.

An MC official said that they are not getting response from suppliers. “It is because vehicles with BS4 engines have been phased out and new vehicles with BS6 engines will not be available before June or July,” he said.

POOR SWACHH SURVEKSHAN RANKING

Meanwhile, the delay in waste reforms also cast a shadow on the MC’s ranking in the 2020 edition of ‘Swachh Survekshan’. The city’s ranking had fallen down from third in 2018 to 20th in 2019. The focus point of the survey parameters was waste segregation in which MC hasn’t been successful so far. The poor response of UT residents in the Centre’s survey has also increased the MC’s problems.

The city faced a lot of embarrassment last year when its ranking fell from 3rd in 2018 to 20th in 2019. In the run up to the final ranking for 2020, the city has already faltered in league rounds with rank 27.

This time, UT will be evaluated out of 6,000 marks in the final ranking out of which 25% is kept for improvement in waste management, 25% for direct observation of city residents, another 25% for performance in garbage star rating system and finally, another 25% marks for the performance in league rounds.

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