Chandigarh MC zeroes in on 8 localities not giving segregated garbage

For achieving 100% segregation of garbage at source, the Chandigarh municipal corporation has zeroed in on eight areas across the city where the compliance has been found poor.

All these are semi-urban or rural and situated on the city’s periphery: Hallomajra, Bapu Dham Colony, Sanjay Colony (Industrial Area), Indira Colony (Manimajra), Maloya, EWS Colony (Maloya), Mauli Jagran, and Vikas Nagar (Mauli Jagran).

The municipal corporation (MC) on Wednesday started an awareness drive at Vikas Nagar and EWS Colony besides Ram Darbar under the theme of Kachra Alag Karo Amrit Divas as part of the Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav. At the other five places, including Hallomajra, Bapu Dham Colony and parts on Manimajra, awareness drives will be conducted in the coming days.

“We will extend the awareness drive in other parts to encourage people to segregate waste. This will be continued beyond the Mahotsav,” said MC commissioner Anindita Mitra.

Mitra on September 8 had directed the officials concerned to find out that how much segregated waste is being collected currently, and how various areas are performing. The MC had taken over door-to-door garbage collection in December last year, and has deployed around 525 two-bin vehicles to collect segregated waste.

Nearly 80% localities have been covered with these vehicles, but the civic body is still receiving mixed waste from most areas. Though no exact figure is available, MC officials have estimated that around 25% households are still giving mixed wet and dry waste.

The collection of mixed waste is also affecting the working of two material recovery facilities at the Industrial Area. These facilities have a dedicated space for sorting recoverable dry waste into different categories, including paper, card, recyclable plastic, glass bottles and metal. The leftover dry waste is moved to the compost plant at Dadumajra.