After failing to get the desired response from city residents for its latest segregation drive, the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) has decided to rejig its strategy.
From asking residents to walk to the garbage collection vehicles to dump the waste, MC has now decided to ask its personnel manning these vehicles to collect garbage from people’s doorsteps.
The change will be effected with the MC enrolling the existing cart-based private garbage collectors on its vehicles. “With the existing garbage collectors starting to man the MC vehicles also, the old practice of collectors picking up garbage from people’s houses will be gradually restored,” said Sorabh Arora, joint commissioner, MC.
On Wednesday, the first day of the door-to-door segregated garbage collection, residents had complained that MC vehicles had left their lanes before they could reach them. Senior citizens, especially those living on the first and second floors, had also said that it was difficult for them to climb down the stairs.
Even as teething problems persisted, MC asked its sanitary inspectors to coordinate with locals and resident welfare associations.
“Today, members of the RWA along with area sanitary inspectors ushered the accompanying staff door-to-door to train them and educate residents about segregation. MC vehicle along with three helpers had started picking waste from all households,” said Jagrup Singh, adviser, Government Houses RWS, Sector 22.
{{/usCountry}}“Today, members of the RWA along with area sanitary inspectors ushered the accompanying staff door-to-door to train them and educate residents about segregation. MC vehicle along with three helpers had started picking waste from all households,” said Jagrup Singh, adviser, Government Houses RWS, Sector 22.
{{/usCountry}}In many localities, though, the existing garbage collectors continued to collect garbage instead of MC vehicles.
“In narrow motorable lanes, no MC vehicle came and waste collection was done by existing garbage collectors only. On bigger roads, MC vehicles came,” said RC Sharma, vice president, Sector 18 RWA.
In Sector 8, “Informal waste collectors had picked most of the garbage from households before the arrival of the MC vehicle,” said RS Gill, president of Sector 8 RWA.
Improvement from Day 1
Stating that there was marked improvement in the amount of segregated waste collected on the first day, Arora, said, “The amount of segregated waste deposited on Thursday doubled from Wednesday. In the coming days, we are expecting better results.”
The MC will also be stepping up the awareness campaign among the residents. It plans to distribute pamphlets among the residents detailing information about the segregation.
“We will also be organising webinar involving the residents and the resident welfare association to educate them about how to segregate waste and how to differentiate between different types of waste. The webinar will be addressed by solid waste experts. It is planned to be started from next week,” said Arora.