Tribune News Service
Amritsar, February 5
A large number of garbage heaps can be seen along various roads in Amritsar as regular lifting of waste from most of the areas is yet to start. The delay in establishing waste disposal plant and laxity of the staff concerned is to be blamed for the lapse.
The general perception of the residents is that the Municipal Corporation has a lackadaisical attitude in tackling the garbage problem except in the posh areas of the city. “Employees of the MC cannot see large garbage heaps near the ESI Hospital on Majitha Road and inside Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, but they can make arrangements for lifting of garbage from the areas where influential people are living,” said Gurnam Singh, a resident of Majitha Road.
The residents often resort to burning garbage in the absence of its regular lifting. However, burning waste is polluting the environment and enhancing breathing problem among the people.
A heap of garbage can be spotted on Majitha Road near the ESI Hospital where safai walas dump the waste from nearby localities. “Garbage has been lying here for past four-five days. It has started emitting smell but nobody has come to lift it,” said another resident Kishan Lal.
The story is not much different inside Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where heaps of garbage can be spotted easily at various places. The containers placed by the Municipal Corporation for garbage collection are full to the brim with trash spilling out, but these have not been transported to the dumping site.
When Swachch Bharat campaign was initiated by the Prime Minister all local leaders had yielded brooms to get their photographs clicked. The campaign has failed to bring any change in hygienic condition of the city.
Vacant plots in the inner city areas have turned into dumping sites for the garbage. The residents of nearby houses complained that safai sewaks often dumped garbage collected from the nearby areas in vacant plots, which was unhygienic and against the norms.
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