Gurugram, Faridabad residents demand cancellation of Chinese subsidiary Ecogreen’s contract

Officials of Ecogreen said that although their services have not been affected so far, they have nonetheless faced some troubles during waste collection. As such, they have advised their staff to take necessary precautions and be on alert.

 Ecogreen, a subsidiary of the Chinese company, Jinjiang Environment Holding Company Limited (CJE) that has been collecting door-to-door waste in Gurugram and Faridabad since December 2017, has been facing resistance from local residents and councillors over the past week amid growing India-China border standoff.

Last Wednesday, in DLF Phase-1, around 10 residents protested on the road and allegedly wrote on the society’s WhatsApp group that they wouldn’t allow Ecogreen officials to operate in their area anymore. (Bloomberg file photo. Representative image)

Officials of Ecogreen said that although their services have not been affected so far, they have nonetheless faced some troubles during waste collection. As such, they have advised their staff to take necessary precautions and be on alert.

Last Wednesday, in DLF Phase-1, around 10 residents protested on the road and allegedly wrote on the society’s WhatsApp group that they wouldn’t allow Ecogreen officials to operate in their area anymore. The matter was resolved after an intervention by the RWA. “A few residents of the society had raised objections and wanted to stop Ecogreen from operating inside the colony because of its Chinese affiliation. Before the matter got out of hand, we quickly met with each one of the protesting residents and apprised them of the importance of waste collection especially during the Covid-19 crisis. After much deliberation, the residents saw reason in our argument and the matter was quickly resolved,” said Dhruv Bansal, spokesperson of DLF Qutub Enclave RWA.

Similar objections have been raised in Faridabad as well. On June 19, Manmohan Garg, the deputy mayor of Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF), submitted a request to the civic body, seeking that the contract of Ecogreen be cancelled in the light of the China-India border standoff.

“Besides the India-China border crisis, Faridabad councillors have repeatedly voiced their concerns on the operations of Ecogreen. They are operating in multiple cities and we feel that they are too spread out to concentrate properly on just Gurugram and Faridabad. As such, we feel that they are unable to do their job properly. Hence, I have asked the MCF officials to cancel their contract,” said Garg.

On June 20, around 30 members of Akhil Bhartiya Kranti Dal, a right-wing group, also took out a protest across several parts of Old Gurgaon, such as Sadar Bazar, sectors 9, 10, 14, and 16, demanding a cancellation of EcoGreen’s contract.

“The performance of Ecogreen has been substandard. There is no reason why an Indian-owned company can’t be awarded the contract to carry out waste collection even on a temporary basis. We will be submitting a letter in this regard to the Haryana government and will be repeatedly protesting on the matter for the next two months,” said Rajeev Mittal, national spokesperson for Akhil Bhartiya Kranti Dal (ABKD).

On August 14, 2017, that a memorandum of understanding(MoU) was signed between Ecogreen Energy Pvt Limited, the MCF, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram(MCG), directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB), in the presence of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar for waste collection in the two cities as well as for operating the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant at the Bandhwari landfill.

Reacting to the ongoing protests, Sanjeev Sharma, the official spokesperson of Ecogreen, said, “From the outside, we may be perceived as a Chinese company but, apart from 20 Chinese nationals, more than 2,000 of our workers are Indians. We have made more than ₹ 500 crore of investment in the two cities for waste collection, and our staff has continued its service even amid the Covid-19 outbreak. Our staff has faced a few instances of unrest in both cities but the matter has never escalated to being physical or curtailed our operations in any way. We have advised our staff members to take all necessary precautions and stay on alert,” said Sanjeev Sharma, official spokesperson of Ecogreen.

“We have not received any complaints — neither against Ecogreen nor from them. If there is any complaint, we will examine it based on performance. We have given them strict directions to collect waste from all corners in the city, especially given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, MCG.