Garbage piles up as Sangrur civic body faces power tussle

Heaps of garbage have come up in Sangrur, the town having the residence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Not just in other parts of the city, the situation is equally bad in the posh areas and even right outside the Municipal Council office.

Earlier in the month, 10 councillors, including eight from ruling AAP, had withdrawn support to sitting civic body president Bhupinder Singh Nahal over issues including garbage management in the town.

Sangrur is considered an AAP bastion as Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and three ministers, Harpal Singh Cheema, Barinder Kumar Goyal and Aman Arora, hail from the district.

Some local residents said door-to-door garbage collection remained suspended most of the time.

“Garbage collectors came today after four days in our area. What is our fault and where should we go to raise this issue?” said Santosh Kumar, a resident of Friends Colony.

Social activist Jasinder Sekhon, who resides near Ranbir Club, said, “My family has elderly members. What if someone falls ill due to the foul smell from the garbage in our area? Is this the Diwali gift for residents?”

“On one hand, the administration spreads awareness about the Swachh Bharat campaign and anti-dengue drives, and on the other, it fails to even clean roads. The situation is pathetic everywhere — outside schools, parks and residential colonies. There are 220 sweepers for just 29 municipal wards and the situation is turning worse day by day,” she added.

Ashish Kumar, Executive Officer of the Sangrur Municipal Council, said, “I joined here just a few days ago and the issue is in my notice. Our chief sanitary inspector is on leave. I have held meetings with sweepers and sanitary inspectors and instructed the staff to improve the condition.”

“They have been given free hand to issue challans to violators. We have some rehris and pickup vehicles to lift garbage, but more such vehicles are required. We have one rented garbage disposal site that needs remediation and tenders will be floated soon. Local MLA Narinder Kaur Bharaj has also asked us to speed up the activities,” he added.

Deputy Commissioner Rahul Chaba said, “It is definitely an eyesore. This was the first complaint I received when I joined here almost two months ago. I am regularly holding meetings in this regard. The new EO of the Municipal Council has joined recently.”