100% door-to-door waste being collected, says Municipal Corporation of Gurugram

Officials said it took over three months — from October to December last year — for the number of garbage vulnerable points to come down from 40 to 20

The commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) Mukesh Kumar Ahuja said on Monday that the city had achieved 100% door-to-door garbage collection, and the number of waste-burning hotspots had reduced to zero because of the agency’s efforts to control different sources of pollution.

Officials said it took over three months — from October to December last year — for the number of garbage vulnerable points to come down from 40 to 20. (Parveen Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Several residents, however, said the situation on the ground was different.

The commissioner was speaking on the role of municipalities and service agencies in the abatement of air pollution during a two-day Dialogue Towards Clean Air organised by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change and Commission for Air Quality Management in collaboration with state governments of national capital region (NCR) cities.

“The number of non-designated sites — garbage vulnerable points (GVP) — has reduced from 40 to 20 in the city. We have now reached 100% success in door-to-door collection of waste, and 70% of the waste is segregated at the source itself. We all know that burning municipal solid waste is harmful and releases toxic gases. Controlling this is a must and has been done to a large extent. We have identified hotspots of waste burning around marketplaces, residential areas, slums, and by constituting special squads, their number has been brought down to zero. Now there are only a few stray incidents of waste being burnt in the open,” said Ahuja.

Officials said it took over three months — from October to December last year — for the number of GVPs to come down from 40 to 20.

Open waste-burning is a major issue in Gurugram, with residents regularly complaining to the authorities or on social media.

Environmentalists and residents said they were taken aback by the MCG commissioner’s claims, dismissing them out of hand.

Vaishali Rana, an environmentalist, said, “The claims being made by the commissioner are far from reality as waste is burned in many pockets of Gurugram every day. If all the issues contributing to air pollution in Gurugram have almost been solved, then why are we knocking the National Green Tribunal’s doors, especially regarding solid waste management in the city?”

Manas Fuloria, a resident of South City 1, said, “There is still work left to do in terms of waste management. Segregating household waste is one thing, but waste is paid for by weight, and we residents often see waste mixed downstream. We want to be certain that waste is being reduced, recycled and disposed of correctly. We are also concerned about the waste-to-energy plant adding to air pollution, given Delhi’s experience. Another issue is construction and demolition waste. If one tours the city, one can see how construction and demolition waste, which adds to dust pollution, is dumped at open sites instead of designated sites.”

Officials from MCG, when asked about residents’ complaints regarding waste-burning and problems in door-to-door collection, claimed they received complaints from very few areas.

Vaishali Sharma, additional commissioner, MCG, said, “There is no hotspot for waste burning now--there have been one or two incidents of waste burning in the past few weeks, but as soon as we received the information, we sent a team to penalise the perpetrators. With regard to door-to-door collection of waste, we have received complaints only from those areas where unauthorised waste collectors are not allowing the waste concessionaire to enter. We are in the process of registering FIRs against such unauthorised agencies.”

Ruchika Sethi, a resident of Sector 50 who has been working on solid waste management in the city, said, “The information shared by the MCG commissioner does not reflect the ground realities. We request the authorities to undertake ground reconnaissance and verify ground realities with respect to segregation, inadequate waste collection, littering, mixed waste collection transportation, open dumping sites, open burning of municipal and plastic waste, and e-waste burning in and around neighbourhoods.”

Open waste burning and open dumping of solid waste and construction and demolition waste are rampant practices in Gurugram, with residents raising the issue throughout the year. In November last year, the MCG started collecting only segregated waste from households through EcoGreen Energy, the city’s waste concessionaire; but in many localities, people still throw out mixed waste. In October 2021, MCG officials said that the segregation of waste is aimed at converting wet waste into compost and recycling the dry waste as much as possible so that the waste load on the overburdened Bandhwari landfill can be reduced.

The Bandhwari landfill receives around 2,000 tonnes of waste every day from both Gurugram and Faridabad. Municipal solid waste from both these cities has been dumped at the site since 2015. There are around 2.5 million tonnes of legacy waste at the Bandhwari landfill.