Political heat over tardy garbage lifting

Mukesh Tandon

Lifting and door-to-door collection of garbage in Panipat city by JBM Environment Management Private Limited has become a political issue. Residents are facing problems due to tardy lifting of garbage from roads and internal parts of the city. Ruling BJP councillors also raised the issue in the general house meeting of the municipal corporation and also passed an agenda to cancel the company’s tender.

The state government had in 2017 signed an agreement with JBM Environment Management Private Limited for the development of an integrated solid waste management plant in the Sonepat cluster comprising the municipal corporations of Panipat and Sonepat and the municipal councils of Samalkha and Gannaur. 

JBM was to lift waste and garbage and also collect it door to door in four municipal areas. It was to build and operate a 5-MW power plant in a village near Murthal in Sonepat district at a cost of Rs 176 crore and treat 500 tonnes of municipal waste there every day. 

The government had provided around 20 acres to the company for the project. Around 500 tonnes of solid waste generated in the Sonepat cluster was to be dumped and treated at the plant every day. 

The company has been embroiled in controversies ever since it started lifting garbage in the city on February 22 last year. The sanitation and cleanliness apparatus was not streamlined in the last one and a half year. Heaps of garbage can be seen everywhere in the city and uncovered trolleys teeming with garbage can force you to cover your nose. Insanitary conditions have become a political issue in the city and all BJP councillors are up in arms against JBM.  

The municipal corporation is spending around Rs 4.5 crore on sanitation, sweeping and cleanliness in the city every month and of this around Rs 1.5 crore is being paid to JBM. 

The municipal corporation general house meeting on July 4 passed an agenda to cancel the tender of the company while the councillors passed an agenda in the fourth general house meeting on August 10 to penalise it. Mayor Avneet Kaur along with councillors Dushyant Bhatt, Lokesh Nagroo, Ashok Kataria, Ravinder Bhatia and others accused JBM company of unsatisfactory work. They said that the municipal corporation was spending more than Rs 4.5 crore on cleanliness in the city but still heaps of garbage could be seen everywhere.

Besides, people are also not satisfied with sanitation in the city. Tanya, chairperson of RM Foundation, says that the conditions in the internal parts of the city are worse. Insanitary conditions prevail everywhere, she adds. 

“I have contacted Mayor Avneet Kaur and JBM employees several times in the last 15 days but no one is bothered about lifting garbage,” she says. 

The company and the municipal corporation are not working for proper sanitation in the city. The MLAs, the Mayor and municipal councillors should take the issue seriously, she adds.

Sagar Khurana, president of Power of Unity Society, says that it is unfortunate that while they often talk about cleanliness, heaps of garbage are lying along streets, roads and main chowks in the city. 

“We are not satisfied with the working of JBM. We have been receiving several complaints about non-lifting of garbage from various parts of the city on a daily basis,” says Avneet Kaur, Mayor.

“Councillors have been raising the issue in every general house meeting and we passed an agenda to cancel the tender of the company in the previous meeting. We also passed an agenda in the recent meeting to penalise the company for its negligence,” she adds. 

“We are answerable to city residents and not to any private company. A detailed report about JBM will be submitted to the Chief Minister soon,” says the Mayor.

Om Prakash, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, says, “I have held a meeting with higher officials of JBM company and directed them to work properly. The conditions have improved in the last few days and some councillors have also informed him about the improvement”.

“Besides, JBM officials will also be called after Independence Day and the conditions will further improve in coming days,” he says. 

Atinder Singh, in charge of JBM company, says, “We are trying to lift garbage properly and at proper time. According to the agreement, we have to lift garbage from secondary points in the city and collect garbage door to door but in Panipat the municipal corporation has not provided any secondary point in the last one and a half year”. 

“We have been lifting around 450 to 500 tonnes of garbage every day in the city and dumping it at the landfill near Nimbri village on the Sanoli road,” he adds.