Looking Back 2024: Residents hope New Year will make city a better place to live in

In 2024, the residents of Amritsar city continued to fight with problems arising due to non-lifting of garbage, poor sanitation, contaminated water supply, choked sewer and damaged roads. Ironically, there was no MC General House, where public representatives could take up these issues. Moreover, the Municipal Corporation Commissioners were transferred thrice in one year. Harpreet Singh was appointed as the MC Commissioner on January 29, 2024 and transferred on September 12, 2024. Harpreet Singh was replaced by Gulpreet Singh Aulakh, who joined office on September 24, but was transferred two days later. The government then appointed Rahul Chabba as the MC Commissioner but he did not join. Aulakh was then appointed again to lead the civic body on October 4.

The Municipal Corporation elections were conducted on December 21 but there were some civic issues which had haunted the residents all the year round. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got only 24 seats out of 85 following a poor performance on the development front and slackness in addressing the civic issues.

Amritsar’s civic infrastructure continues to grapple with perennial problems, leaving residents frustrated and disillusioned. The city’s sanitary conditions, in particular, took a turn for the worse, with the garbage-lifting vehicles of the solid waste management firm wearing out, leading to irregular waste collection and piling up of garbage. The heaps of legacy waste at Bhagtanwala dump are getting larger. On December 3, the MC started bio-remediation with a promise to process all the 20 lakh tonnes of waste lying in the dumping ground.

Meanwhile, the issue of choked sewers in the West constituency remained in the headlines. The Chheharta area bore the brunt of choked sewers and accumulation of water in the streets, making life miserable for residents. The promise to enhance the capacity of sewer treatment plant (STP) was not fulfilled and people were forced to reside in hell-like conditions. The promised funds for road and street recarpeting failed to materialise, leaving the city’s roads in a pathetic condition, causing inconvenience to commuters and pedestrians alike.

On a positive note, the canal-based water supply project, aimed at providing clean drinking water to the city’s residents, is progressing, albeit at a slow pace. However, the menace of stray animals continues to trouble city residents, with no tangible solution in sight. As Amritsar ushers in the New Year, its residents can only hope that the authorities will take concrete steps to make the city a better place to live in.