Sanitation strike: Growing garbage piles put east Delhi residents in a spot

Spilling dhalaos, dirty roads and missing sweepers have left the residents with piles of garbage and no place to dispose it

With heaps of garbage piling up along Vikas Marg in east Delhi on Monday morning, the garbage crisis has hit the day to day life of residents in the Capital. People complain that on one hand the corporation’s sanitation staff has not been clearing out waste while on the other private sweepers engaged for door-to-door collection of garbage have also not turned up for last three days.

The east Delhi areas that have been hit the most are: Laxmi Nagar, Preet Vihar, Krishna Nagar, New Ashok Nagar, Vinod Nagar, Khichripur and other adjoining areas.

“I waited for three days for the private collector to pick up the waste, after that I had to go on my own to dump it at the neighbouring dhalao,” said Gurvinder Kaur, a resident of Krishna Nagar. Sanitation staff of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) had called for a strike last week to protest against non-payment of salaries since November 2016. Though the Delhi government has released ₹119 crore to the civic body, workers say it is not enough for even one month.

Though the corporation assured last Saturday that private workers will be pressed into action, the situation hasn’t improved. Kaur claimed that the EDMC staff were preventing private collectors from lifting garbage. “The dhalaos are already filled with garbage and there is no additional space to dump the waste. We don’t know what to do with the waste,” she said.

The east Delhi areas that have been hit the most are: Laxmi Nagar, Preet Vihar, Krishna Nagar, New Ashok Nagar, Vinod Nagar, Khichripur and other adjoining areas.

“For the last three days, we have not seen anyone from MCD sweeping the roads and garbage is scattered all over. It is difficult for the residents to cross the road. I went to the bus stop to pick up my children and the place was full of mess,” said RK Mittal, a resident of Pandav Nagar.

According to Harpreet Singh, a resident of Krishna Nagar, the EDMC commissioner had announced the decision to engage 43 private trucks to clean dhalaos as soon as possible, however, it has been of no help. “I got to know through the newspapers that 20 trucks have been pushed into service from Monday and each of them is lifting 20 tonnes of garbage. But that would only make for 400 tonnes per day. In fact, EDMC generates 2,300MT of garbage daily, so how will they deal with the situation and clear the backlog with just 20 trucks?,” he said.