Mohali residents give Swachh Bharat Abhiyan the go-by

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, October 3

With the identification of as many as 60 unauthorised garbage dumping points in the town by the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MMC), residents apparently have given thumbs down to the Modi government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

These dumping points are being used by the residents to throw garbage bags, indicating that these persons are not using garbage collection services by the Mohali MC and making the town dirty.

Shockingly, most of these points have been found near good residential localities in the urban areas.

Mohali Mayor Kulwant Singh said these points were identified during a recent survey conducted by MC officials.

“We were shocked to see that several well-to-do residents are doing this obviously to save some money. Our officials saw several persons coming in cars or two-wheelers to throw their garbage bags. They were seen throwing the garbage bags from a distance without bothering about the area’s cleanliness and hygiene,” said Kulwant Singh.

He said garbage used to lie at these unauthorised points for several days as these were not being cleaned regularly just like authorised dumping yards.

“Our officials clean regular dumping yards regularly and also spray medicine there but these unauthorised dumping yards pose a big threat to the people residing nearby,” said Kulwant Singh.

However, he said the Mohali Municipal Corporation had chalked out a strategy to deal with such people.

“Under the strategy, we are going to depute two MC personnel at each such point. First, we will try to counsel the offenders. If they will not pay heed, then we will impose a fine to discourage them. After that we will click their photographs and start legal action against them,” said Kulwant Singh.

It is to be noted that the MMC has been spending an amount of Rs 3.75 lakh daily on town’s cleanliness.