Working of sweeping machines comes under scanner, city to get 5 more soon

Manav Mander

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Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 8

The city is all set to get five more sweeping machines but before these could reach the city (taking the total number of machines to 10 ) the working of the existing machines has hit the rocks.

Now, MC has five machines

At present, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has five sweeping machines. One was given under the Swachh Bharat Mission, four under the National Clean Air Programme and five more are expected to reach the city under the clean air programme.

The working of the five sweeping machines have come under scanner and MLA Gurpeeet Gogi has raised questions over the allocation of 100 litres of diesel per day and he said seeing the low usage of these machines, it is estimated that these run for only 20 km a day.

Gogi has asked MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi to conduct a probe in this regard.

Currently, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has five sweeping machines. One was given under the Swachh Bharat Mission, four under the National Clean Air Programme and five more are expected to reach the city under the clean air programme.

Mechanical sweeping is being taken up on the directions of the National Green Tribunal to curb air pollution in the city. It is done at night around 10 pm-10:30 pm when traffic on roads is less. It is preferred as manual sweeping results in emission of dust particles in the air.

Raising questions over the working of the machines, Gogi said he had serious doubts in the functioning of the sweeping machines.

“There are five sweeping machines for the city and each machine is allotted a quota of 100 litres of diesel per day while the machine does not even cover 20 km a day. Besides, not all machines are working regularly and doing sweeping work at night as they are required to do,” he said.

MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi said the machines were given diesel on an hourly basis and since it was a powerful machine with two engines, it consumes approximately 10 litres of petrol in a hour.

“All these machines are GPS enabled and strict vigil is being maintained on their movement and the area covered by them. I have asked Additional Commissioner to keep a close watch on the machines and the area they covered, so that there is no pilferage of diesel,” the MC Commissioner said.

He said soon, five more machines would be bought under the National Clean Air Programme and with that all major city areas would come under mechanical sweeping and it would help bring down the PM10 level.

Mechanical sweeping was introduced in the city as manual sweeping leads to heavy dust flow.