From today, Chandigarh MC to up ante against regular waste sorting defaulters

After zeroing down on individual households giving non-segregated waste, the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) will now step up the drive against them, imposing fines and issuing challans from August 1.

The MC, after a detailed survey of all localities in the city, has identified 514 households which are regular defaulters, and giving mix garbage without segregation, said MC commissioner Anindita Mitra.

The defaulting households are spread over all over the city, in sectors, villages and rehabilitation colonies. Majority of the defaulters are located in sectors, while rest are in villages and rehabilitation colonies. Of the total 514 households identified, 299 are located in sectors.

Sector 15 has the highest number of such houses, with 51 households identified as not giving segregated waste. It is closely followed by Manimajra with 45 houses regularly not segregating waste. EWS Colony has 38 regular defaulters and Sector 25 has 29.

In Sector 38, Khuda Jassu and Ramdarbar only one household has been identified as giving non-segregated waste on regular basis.

While earlier this year, the MC had identified the areas and localities from where non-segregated waste is still coming, now it has zeroed down on individual houses.

“We have analysed every garbage collection vehicle coming to the material recovery facilities (MRF). Pictorial record of the waste is being monitored and analysed for every collection vehicle coming to the MRF facility,” said Mitra.

370 challans in last 15 days

In the last 15 days, MC has challaned more than 370 households for giving non-segregated waste. Now, to push for greater compliance, the MC will start aggressive challan drive from August 1 against erring households, with a particular focus on regular defaulters.

The fine ranges from ₹232 to ₹11,576 per default depending upon the category of the unit.

It has been more than three years since the MC mandated the segregation of waste at the source. But, as per MC officials, the percentage of segregated waste is currently hovering around 75% to 80%. One of the reasons for City Beautiful slipping in the Swachhta rankings was its poor segregation record. The dysfunctional solid waste processing plant is among the reasons for poor waste management.

Now, with the existing plant expected to work more effective and efficiency in next three months, the need for waste to be segregated would be more urgent. The MC has allotted work for major overhaul of the machinery at the plant.

The collection of non-segregated waste is also affecting the functioning of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) centers. MRF has dedicated space for sorting of recoverable dry waste into different categories like paper, card, recyclable plastics, glass bottles, metal etc.