MCG, Ecogreen tussle takes its toll; no garbage cleared from dumping points

Gurugram: An ongoing tussle between the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and its concessionaire Ecogreen Energy over garbage collection led to no disposal of garbage from 20 secondary points across the city on Saturday.

Officials said that the compostable waste was also sent to the secondary points but the concessionaire said their mandate was to collect and not segregate waste. Garbage was seen on the roadsides of market areas and waste collection points at Basai, Khandsa and Chakkarpur, officials added.

Residents alleged that the condition was so bad that they had to walk over the garbage. Manpreet Kaur, a resident of South City-1 alleged that her family visits the gurudwara in Sadar area and they were forced to park their car at a distance as garbage was all over the stretch. “The area was stinking and there was no one to collect or pick the waste from the main market area. Hundreds of vehicles were moving on the stretch and the garbage had spilled on the busy road,” she said.

Another resident of Chakkarpur said that they are fed up with the poor garbage maintenance. “No one is bothered about cleanliness. Almost all the roadsides have turned into garbage dumps. Despite several complaints to MCG officials, no action has been initiated,” said Sunil Yadav, who works with a private bank.

Residents alleged that after October last year, the situation has worsened. They said that the civic agencies, which are supposed to take clear the garbage, have failed residents of Gurugram.

Meanwhile, officials said they are still struggling to streamline the waste collection system in the city.

Suvendu Samantaray, general manager (operations), Ecogreen Energy, said their teams refused to pick up waste from 20 secondary waste points on Saturday. “MCG has arbitrarily stopped our teams from doing its job of waste collection and transportation from secondary collection points in Gurugram. The unanticipated action has been taken by the MCG without any information or advisory being given to us in this regard,” he said.

Samantaray said that secondary collection points are designated points given by the MCG and are currently accessible to all, including the MCG street sweeping teams and waste collectors other than the concessionaire.

“As per the concession agreement, MCG issues challans to Ecogreen Energy for loading of waste from these points and unloading them at the landfill sites. This work is done under the supervision of MCG officials from start till finish. This decision of MCG is only going to hamper and increase the waste management problems across the city,” Samantaray said.

Jaideep Kumar Narwana, MCG additional commissioner, said that they are taking action against vehicles who are not following Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and still collecting and transporting mixed waste. “We have penalised nine vehicles for violations, but we have not stopped anyone from collecting waste. This issue is not in my notice but we will resolve it at the earliest,” he said.