Mayor raps private firm for failing to streamline garbage collection

Three months after a private company was entrusted with the responsibility of door-to-door garbage collection in the city, the service has failed to take off effectively in several areas, resulting in heaps of garbage piling up along roadsides. Despite repeated assurances by senior officials that the system would be streamlined by the end of December 2025, residents in many localities continue to face irregular and disrupted garbage collection.

Taking serious note of the situation, Mayor Jatinder Singh Bhatia recently chaired a high-level review meeting to assess the sanitation and garbage lifting arrangements in Amritsar.

During the meeting, the Mayor expressed strong displeasure over the poor implementation of door-to-door garbage collection, and stressed the need for maintaining high standards of cleanliness across the city.

Special emphasis was laid on the cleanliness of approach roads leading to the Golden Temple, considering its religious and tourism significance. The Mayor directed the garbage lifting company to ensure uninterrupted lifting of garbage on all seven days of the week, and made it clear that no laxity would be tolerated.

In view of the heavy rush of visitors, including pilgrims, particularly on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the company was instructed to deploy its entire machinery and workforce to ensure timely clearance of garbage.

The Mayor said sanitation and garbage lifting were among the top priorities of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, and that the contract for these services had been awarded to RRR Company. He categorically instructed company officials to ensure 100 per cent door-to-door garbage collection in all areas — without exception.

As per the agreement, he directed the officials concerned to ensure that QR codes were installed on all buildings so that citizens could register complaints in case garbage was not lifted on time.

The Mayor said the company had provided POS machines to its employees for the collection of user charges, and directed the firm to ensure that citizens were issued proper receipts immediately after making payments.

He said transparency in collection and service delivery was essential to building public trust.

Bhatia said lakhs of visitors came to Amritsar daily to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Durgiana Mandir, with footfall peaking on weekends.

He directed the company to ensure uninterrupted garbage lifting, with all vehicles remaining operational throughout the week.

Additional vehicles and manpower were ordered to be deployed to keep the approach roads to the Golden Temple free of garbage.

The Mayor reviewed the situation at the Jhabbal Road dump site, where nearly 80,000 tonnes of legacy waste is currently lying.

He directed the company to install suitable machinery for the scientific processing of waste, and to optimally utilise the vacant land for this purpose.

Concluding the meeting, Bhatia assured citizens that the Amritsar

Municipal Corporation was fully committed to making the city clean, green

and garbage-free.

He said strict action would be taken against service providers for any lapses, adding that active cooperation from residents was important to achieve the goal of a cleaner Amritsar.