Confusion marks waste segregation launch in Chandigarh

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22

The launch of two-bin waste segregation vehicles seems to have ended in a confusion and inconvenience to local residents today.

After Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore flagged off the vehicles at the Raj Bhawan, these were supposed to only raise awareness in Sector 1-30 today. The collection of segregated waste was to start tomorrow.

However, it was all chaos depicting poor planning.

At places like Sector 8, rehris to lift waste did not come, but twin-bin vehicles came in the afternoon to collect garbage. In most parts of Sector 13 (Modern Housing Complex, Mani Majra) neither rehri nor vehicles came to lift household waste. In Sector 27, rehris came for waste collection, but residents in most parts here did not see any MC vehicle moving around for awareness.

In Sector 22, no rehri came, but vehicles were seen creating awareness with jingles playing in it. Sector 22 residents lamented that neither garbage was lifted from their households, nor they could understand what the speeding vehicles tried to convey.

Dr DS Arora, a resident of Sector 8, said, “Vehicles today lifted waste in our sector. We already segregate waste, but they asked us not to give wet waste in polythene. We told them it will be unhygienic to keep it in the open.”

“Only vehicles moving fast through streets of Sector 22 were seen. No one came for waste collection,” shared Sushil Malhotra, general secretary, Government Houses RWA, Sector 22.

The Chandigarh Residents Association Welfare Federation said the MC should involve RWAs to make its plan reach the public.

Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla rued, “Without making residents aware, it will not be possible to implement the project properly.”

BJP councillor Shakti Prakash Devshali said, “In my ward, the vehicles only created awareness. There could be some teething problems, but we have only upgraded the waste collection system without any cost to people. It is meant to fix accountability.”

Meanwhile, MC officials said from tomorrow, only vehicles would collect garbage in Sectors 1-30 under the first phase of the project.