Expedite work on solid waste management or bank guarantees will be deducted from salaries: Ludhiana MC chief to staff

A day after the monitoring committee of the National Green Tribunal directed the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to impose bank guarantees on the municipal corporation (MC) for its failure in implementing solid waste management, MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal on Tuesday directed health officials to expedite work or bank guarantees would be deducted from their salaries.

A bank guarantee of ₹5 lakh has been imposed on the MC for failing to complete door-to-door collection of waste, ₹5 lakh for failing to construct a boundary wall and establish green belt around the Tajpur Road main dump site and ₹5 lakh for failing to start treatment of over 20-lakh tone legacy waste at the main dump site.

Also, a bank guarantee of ₹7 lakh has been imposed for failing to upgrade sewer treatment plants required to deal with Buddha Nullah pollution.

One of the officials, requesting anonymity, said officials also apprised the MC chief of different problems being faced at the ground level. Even if segregated waste is collected by the waste collectors from houses, there are no secondary dumping points to dump the waste separately. A2Z company, which shifts the garbage from secondary points to main dump site, also lifts the garbage collectively.