GURUGRAM: A month after Haryana govt declared a solid waste exigency in the city, construction and demolition (C&D) waste is still lying on roads. In hotspots such as Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, Sector 29, Golf Course Road Extension and Southern Peripheral Road, C&D waste dumps remain as they were.
The exigency was declared in view of the “alarming” levels of untreated garbage in the city on June 12 under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, for waste management in the city by establishing a system that will include collection, segregation, transportation, processing and disposal.
MCG officials said they have already signed contracts with three private agencies for collection and transportation of C&D waste, but they haven’t been lifting trash. And this is unlikely to change anytime soon — officials from the corporation said they are facing opposition from locals at four of the five sites it has identified for dumping and processing of construction waste.
The five sites designated for C&D waste dumping are in Babupur, Basai, Baliyawas and Daultabad. Last week, a group of residents staged a protest against the dumping of solid waste in Daultabad. With dumping on hold at the other sites due to public resistance, there is only one authorised site where C&D waste is being dumped at present — the C&D waste processing plant in Basai. But this is also massively underutilised as it is authorised to process only 300 metric tonnes of construction waste daily and the firm operating it is restricted to collecting waste from only a 15km radius around the plant.
Haryana chief secretary TVSN Prasad during a visit to the city last month had pointed out that the C&D waste facility in Basai has a capacity of processing 1,500 metric tonnes per day but is currently processing only 300 tonnes daily.
He had directed officials to ensure that the facility runs at its full potential and set up a mechanism allowing the public to make bookings and pay for processing of C&D waste generated by them.
ULB department commissioner and secretary Vikas Gupta had convened a meeting last month and directed MCG officials to lift C&D waste from the roadsides and open spaces in the next 15 to 20 days.
He had specifically directed officials to lift construction waste from Gurgaon-Faridabad road and Sector 29 and sought round-the-clock patrolling to check unauthorised dumping. But on the ground, nothing has changed.
“We have empanelled three agencies for the collection of C&D waste from Sector 29 and Gurgaon-Faridabad road, which are major dumping hotspots. But the waste isn’t being lifted since the five sites that we had identified are not being put to use due to protests by locals. Residents of Baliyawas and Daultabad have already expressed their displeasure. We are now looking for alternative sites where there are no objections,” MCG executive engineer Nijesh Kumar said.
According to the C&D Waste Management Rules, 2016, every waste generator will have to keep the waste within the premises or “get the waste deposited at the collection centre so made by the local body or handover it to the authorised processing facilities”.
The rules also state that the local body will get the “collected waste transported to appropriate sites for processing and disposal, either through its own resources or by appointing private operators”.
