Mohali garbage crisis: GMADA, MC officials to meet today for solution
Meanwhile, RMCs in Mohali continue to be swamped with garbage amid slowed down processing, with the waste set to overflow onto roads in another day or two
Amid the deepening garbage dumping crisis in Mohali, the officials of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and the municipal corporation are set to meet on Monday to work out a solution.
Chaos erupted in the city after Punjab local bodies secretary Ajoy Sharma on Tuesday directed MC to stop garbage dumping at the Phase 8-B landfill in the wake of Punjab and Haryana high court’s recent directions to adopt bioremediation measures at the site, where a mountain of 2.5 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste is standing. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) is also closely monitoring the site.
Pawan Godiyal, the head of the Mohali Sanitation Workers’ Union, said if MC and GMADA failed to come up with a solution post their meeting on Monday, the workers will strike work.
On Friday, the sanitation workers had staged a protest by throwing waste in front of the GMADA office in Phase 8.
On Saturday, MC began blocking garbage trucks from GMADA areas from entering its jurisdiction, citing overwhelming waste processing burden exacerbated by recent government directives.
To prevent garbage vehicles from outside entering, the civic body has deployed teams around its territory near IISER, Balongi, Phase 3-A, and Sectors 88 and 89. Teams of four officials each are also stationed at 14 resource management centres (RMCs) to ensure no outside garbage is dumped there.
For years, these RMCs handled about 200 tonnes of garbage daily, much of it from GMADA areas, processing most and dumping the rest at the Phase 8-B dumping ground.
The recent order translated into MC being forced to handle the entire garbage at the RMCs itself, causing the centres to overflow with waste.
Godiyal said, “Sanitation workers are now collecting garbage only from Mohali MC areas.”
While the area from Phase 1 till Phase 11, besides Sectors 65 to 80, along with Sector 48-C, comes under MC limits, the areas under GMADA include Aerocity, IT City, Wave Estate, TDI, GILCO, Sectors 88, 89, 90, 91, 104 and 105, and Balongi.
Meanwhile, RMCs in Mohali continue to be swamped with garbage amid slowed down processing, with the waste set to overflow onto roads in another day or two.
