New tenders allotted, yet garbage littered on roads in Rohtak city

Despite claims by the Municipal Corporation (MC) that new private firms will begin door-to-door garbage collection from Sunday, many parts of Rohtak city remained riddled with unattended waste. Residents were seen carrying garbage themselves to dumping points using two and four-wheelers, as garbage continued to pile up at several locations across the city.

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The sanitation issue comes in the wake of the expiry of contracts with two private garbage collection firms on June 30. Following this, the MC authorities had taken temporary charge of the collection work and floated short-term tenders, awarding the task to three new private agencies for a three-month period. The city was divided into five zones for the purpose and separate tenders were issued for each zone.

In a press note issued here on Saturday, Anand Sharma, MC Commissioner, had stated that the door-to-door garbage collection work had been awarded through e-tendering process and the agencies would start working from Monday. He mentioned that apart from the short-term contracts, the MC had also floated tenders for a five-year garbage collection project to provide a more permanent and efficient solution.

The Commissioner said the officials concerned were directed to strictly monitor the work and ensure the agencies began functioning with full capacity with immediate effect to avoid inconvenience to the public.

However, ground realities told a different story on Sunday. Garbage could be seen scattered along several roads, particularly outside Bal Bhawan, Sonepat Road and Jhajjar road, where waste remained uncleaned. No garbage collection vehicles or agency staff were visible in these areas.

Prem Singh, a resident of Prem Nagar, expressed his frustration, saying, “It has been six days since anyone has come to collect the waste from our street. We are forced to carry the garbage ourselves to the dumping points. This is not what we expect from a municipal corporation in a city like Rohtak.”

Mukesh of Chaman Pura shared similar concerns. “Garbage has been lying outside Bal Bhawan and other places for the past several days. The new agencies should have started work on Sunday, but there’s no sign of them, he added.

Kanchan Khurana, Municipal Councillor, said no agency staff visited her ward on Sunday for household garbage collection. The residents have demanded the MC authorities to ensure resumption of door-to-door garbage collection work without further delay so that they do not have to take waste to the dumping points.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Anand Sharma told ‘The Tribune’ that all private agencies were issued work orders on Saturday. “On Sunday, they began lifting garbage from dumping points across the city. From Monday onwards, their vehicles will start visiting residential colonies for door-to-door garbage collection,” he claimed.