Hoteliers, residents hope new mayor will push plans for waste management in city
After the election of Aam Aadmi Party’s Jatinder Singh Moti Bhatia as the Mayor of Amritsar Municipal Corporation (AMC), hoteliers as well as the common people are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping for a dynamic change in waste management and regular cleaning of the narrow winding alleys of walled city.
They are expecting that the new MC House would meet their long-standing demand for regular effective cleaning inside the walled city and proper garbage disposal.
A hotelier, Satnam Singh, said: “The Gurbani extols the holy city as ‘Amritsar Sifti Da Ghar’. Abundant references to the walled city having green verdant gardens were found in the sacred Sikh literature, yet the present condition is in stark contrast.”
Singh said if the government makes the narrow winding streets free of garbage and dirt, then the rest will follow. He asserted that the heritage walks failed to gain favour with the tourists as the refuse could not be lifted and swept regularly in the narrow lanes in the early morning hours.
Over the years, the government failed to install dustbins and tardy lifting left piles of garbage at roadsides and in the nook and cranny of the walled city, which is home to several buildings of heritage value displaying Sikh architecture, said a resident Dilbagh Singh. “Deployment of minimum staff for lifting garbage, irregular timing and inadequate number of vehicles has marred the old world charm of the walled city, offering a nightmarish view to the visitors who come daily to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple,” he said.
Barring the inner and exit roads to and from the Golden Temple, lifting of garbage in the rest of the walled city remains tardy. Those in the hospitality industry regret that the government has not bothered to know what message over a lakh of visitors coming daily from across the country and abroad take along after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple.
For a long time, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation and Averda Company were in confrontation, blaming each other but actually it was the people who suffered.
MC officials stated that 300 Safai Sewaks were required to lift and dispose of about 500 MT of garbage, daily. Similarly, the number of vehicles engaged for lifting and disposing of garbage are highly inadequate.
