Housing societies, RWA-21 show the way by manage garbage collection on their own

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 25

At a time when most households of the city are hit by door-to-door garbage collectors’ strike, Sector 21 and some housing societies in the southern sectors are unaffected as the system is well-managed by resident themselves.

In Sector 21, the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) has been operating the system on its own for about 20 years without any hindrance.

“We have bought 12 ‘rehris’ and 12 collectors operate them and collect waste in our sector. We also look after the maintenance of the ‘rehris’. We pay Rs 8,500 a month to each one of them for four-hour part-time work. Nominal charges are collected from houses for the service,” shared Baljinder Singh Bittu, president of the RWA, Sector 21.

“As the MC is going to buy vehicles for collecting waste, we believe our system will be taken over by the corporation. Vehicles may not be of much use as they will just blow horn outside the houses and not lift the garbage. Senior citizens may be troubled,” added Bittu.

Similarly, most housing societies situated in southern sectors are also managing the collection of waste on their own.

“Strikes are never an issue here. Societies manage waste collectors on their own. The waste is collected and subsequently lifted from the Sehaj Safai Kendra (SSK). Even the Sector 48 SSK does not overflow with waste like other sectors,” said JJ Singh, president of the Sector 48 RWA.

Meanwhile, MC officials said they were getting two-bin vehicles to implement the waste segregation policy as mandated under the solid waste management rules. Strike by the collectors was a temporary issue and would be resolved, they said.