Scarcity of vehicles hits garbage collection in city

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Amritsar, December 2

The Health Wing of the Municipal Corporation (MC) conducted an inspection of the door-to-door collection vehicles and found that a large number of vehicles are off road. The MC had been regularly receiving complaints about the irregular service by the solid waste management company, hired by the MC for collecting door-to-door garbage in the city. On the directions of MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi, three teams were formed by the MC’s Health Department to check the garbage collection vehicles by the company yesterday. The vehicles were parked by the company at Ranjit Avenue, Narayangarh in Chheharta area and Bhagtanwala area.

Under the supervision of Health Officer Dr Kiran Kumar, the vehicles were sent for door-to-door collection of garbage in the city. The numbers of all vehicles, the name of the driver and the mobile number of the driver were taken. After checking continuously for one and a half hours, a total of 198 vehicles were able to run in the city from all three parking lots. The company claimed that 244 vehicles are used for door-to-door garbage collection. There are 48 vehicles are on reserve duty in case of any vehicle breakdown, it can be replaced.

Due to plying fewer vehicles by the door-to-door garbage collection company, garbage collection was not being done properly in the city. Moreover, garbage is also dumped outside by the people on roads. The practice affects the ranking of city cleanliness survey of the year 2023. Kumar said a report has been submitted to the higher authorities. “After the physical verification by the teams a report has been given to the higher authorities. Appropriate action will be taken against the company as per the rules,” he said.