Chandigarh’s mess: Segregate waste or pay up

Even as the municipal corporation’s own waste management system is in doldrums, MC commissioner KK Yadav on Monday directed the sanitation department to start fining residents for non-segregation of waste from Tuesday.

He also asked MC staffers to punish waste collectors who deliver unsegregated waste at MC’s Sehaj Safai Kendras (secondary collection points). For residents, the fee for non-segregation is ₹200 while for garbage collectors, it is ₹2,000.

The MC’s fresh stand is contrary to what mayor Rajesh Kalia had promised on Sunday. Kalia had said that no fines would be imposed on people till the MC improves its internal system. On Monday, Kalia did not take calls despite repeated attempts.

BLAME GAME CONTINUES

Having faced a setback on the launch day itself, there was no major improvement noticed on third day of waste segregation either as all stakeholders were found blaming each other.

MC commissioner KK Yadav said they were not getting segregated waste from collectors. The waste collectors should not accept waste from households if it is being given in unsegregated form, he said

Ravi, a waste collector from Sector 18, however, said that they put a plank in their carts to separate dry waste from wet waste. Many residents gave us separate waste but it all got mixed at secondary collection points as these were overloaded with waste from previous days.

Sector 32 RWA general secretary Indu Verma claimed residents are doing the needful but waste collectors don’t have separate compartments in their carts to collect segregated waste. He said the garbage collectors did not turn up in the sector on Monday following a dispute and he took up the matter with the MC but to no avail.

Sector 9 residents’ welfare association president Sardara Singh Sidhu said residents of Sector 9 were segregating their waste but it was being mixed by the garbage collectors.

CRAWFED chairman Anish Garg said residents would be ready to segregate their waste if the administration gives them better bins to keep their segregated waste. “Bags made from cornstarch would be the ideal solution and can be kept sealed for a couple of days at least. The bins given to us are too small, and have no lids, making them impractical.”

MC CHIEF SAYS CAN’T REVERT

MC commissioner KK Yadav said that every new system has teething problems and it will take a few days to stabilise but the MC can’t go back from here. “While we are trying to streamline our system, there is also no denial to the fact that we all are trapped in a vicious circle. The processing plant operator is putting the entire blame on us for not giving segregated waste but it is not improving its processing capacity either. As a result, there is a huge backlog of unprocessed waste inside the plant and our garbage vehicles are often stuck in long queues outside the plant due to slow unloading,” he said, adding, “Its adverse affect is seen at secondary collection points, which are not getting cleared on time.”   

WHO PAYS HOW MUCH

Households: ₹200

Commercial units: ₹500

Institutional units: ₹2,000- ₹10,000

Waste collectors: ₹2,000