MCG starts mapping garbage burning spots

Residents of areas along the Golf Course Extension Road alleged that there is a constant blanket of smoke, but officials were failing to take action despite sending them videos of sanitation workers involved in collecting and burning waste

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Thursday started mapping areas close to residential areas where there is rampant open burning of waste, following repeated complaints from residents, officials said.

Garbage burning in an open area at Sector-12 green belt near Vivekananda Aarogay Kendra in Gurugram on Thursday. (HT PHOTO)

According to MCG officials, most of the complaints were from sectors 49, 50, 51 and 57, and areas along the Golf Course Extension Road, following which teams were sent to the spot. They said outsourced employees who are supposed to collect and dump waste at secondary dumping points, were, instead, dumping in the open and burning it.

Residents of these areas allege that there is a constant blanket of smoke, but officials were failing to take action despite sending them videos of sanitation workers involved in collecting and burning waste. They alleged a lack of accountability on part of the officials.

MCG joint commissioner Naresh Kumar said that they have penalised 65 offenders, all employees of private agencies, since January 1. “We have shared numbers of the sanitation officers sector-wise with the residents’ welfare associations and are closely coordinating with them. The suspects set garbage on fire either late night or early morning, due to which it is difficult to deploy teams round-the-clock to keep a control on the situation,” he said.

Kumar said they have also started the process of identifying workers involved in garbage burning and they will blacklist them. so that they cannot be not hired by another private agency in the future.

Ruchika Sethi Takkar, founder-member of ‘Why Waste Your Waste’, a civil society movement for a zero-waste city, said that massive fires were noticed at waste collection sites regularly. “Waste is regularly set afire because it is an unmanned unregulated open dump or collection site, as well as because waste is managed through a transportation model and not a waste recovery decentralised model . We cannot afford to breathe this polluted air day-in and day-out. It is indeed a health crime. Accountability remains unfixed,” she said.

Takkar said there is an absence of infrastructure to scientifically manage waste at the ward level and lack of enforcement by civic authorities. “We have no option left and have appealed to the ULB minister to recognise the prolonged exposure of Gurugram residents to poor air due to the unabated waste burning,” she said.

Vartika Nijhawan, a resident of Hibiscus Society in Sector 50, said that daily garbage burning envelops her condominium in smoke and fumes. “We have been running home purifiers 24x7 and still, the pungent smell does not go away. I have been a regular visitor to ENT doctors for allergies due to pollution,” she said.

Satish Tuli, a senior citizen living in Mayfield Gardens Block B, said that the foul smell due to waste burning in the vicinity makes it impossible to take morning and evening walks in the complex. “We are left with no option but to stay indoors or take a walk in afternoons, under the hot sun,” he said.