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Littered waste greets Swachh Survekshan team in Mohali
Last year, Mohali’s rank in the annual cleanliness survey had dropped to 81, 32 positions down from 113 in 2021
The municipal corporation’s (MC) claims of improved cleanliness notwithstanding, the Swachh Survekshan assessment team were on Wednesday greeted to the sight of littered garbage and mismanaged disposal of wet and dry waste.
The Swachh Bharat Mission Urban evaluates cleanliness in public spaces and toilets, takes resident feedback and evaluates the municipality’s performance in waste collection, segregation and processing.
Garbage management remains a challenge, given that the city generates 36.6 tonnes of dry and 53.39 tonnes of wet waste every day. This, and ineffective waste management practices, has contributed to the city’s declining cleanliness rankings.
Last year, Mohali had slipped 32 positions from 2021’s 81st rank to settle at the 113th spot among 382 cities in the 1 to 10 lakh category.
In the 2021 survey, Mohali achieved a score of 58.5%. The same fell further to 53.8% in 2022. Even at the state level, the city’s position dropped from second to third in the period — with Ferozepur and Abohar taking the lead. Of particular concern is the service-level progress component, carrying a significant weightage of 40% in the assessment. Mohali’s performance in the parametre has remained dismal, garnering only 1,762 out of 3,000 marks. A recurring failure to implement effective garbage segregation at source is the main contributor to this low score.
Falling short
In response to its poor performance, the civic body took action by launching RRR Centers (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) as part of the “Meri Life, Mera Swachh Shehar” campaign. However, these initiatives have failed to yield the desired results.
The struggle to implement waste segregation has persisted since the programme’s launch in 2017.
The civic authorities’ efforts to enforce guidelines to segregate wet and dry waste have faced challenges.
Speaking of the same, municipal commissioner Navjot Kaur said. “Clear directions were issued not to accept mixed waste at the Resource Management Centre (RMC).”
Notably, the civic body has also started maintaining a record of residents who are mixing wet and dry waste in violation of the guidelines.
Meanwhile, mayor Amarjeet Singh Sidhu expressed confidence in the city faring better in this year’s assessment, highlighting Mohali’s adoption of a no-tolerance policy for single-use plastics and efforts to strengthen garbage collection systems.
Addressing the issue of littering, Sidhu emphasised that most door-to-door collected waste arrives at RMCs in segregated form. He added that the waste collected from areas outside municipal limits, managed by private contractors, often contains mixed waste, posing a challenge to waste management.
Sukhdev Singh Patwari, councillor of ward no 34, voiced scepticism regarding the progress of garbage segregation, citing a lack of clarity on the status of mechanical sweeping in certain areas.
