Door-to-door collection hit as ‘no place’ to throw garbage

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 23

The door-to-door waste collection service has been disrupted in several parts of the city for the last two weeks. Officials of the Municipal Corporation (MC) claimed that they faced a problem at the Bhagtanwala dump. The garbage trucks are lined up at the dumping site to unload the waste.

According to information, the space is insufficient to dump more garbage at the Bhagtanwala dump. The solid waste management company workers have to make the space with ditch machines to unload the garbage trucks. After intervention of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the MC had initiated the construction of wall around the dump. However, it is still incomplete. The project of garbage processing is also hanging in fire. There is no space for more garbage at the Bhagtanwala dump, said a driver of the garbage lifting vehicle.

Dr Ajay Kanwar, Municipal Health Officer, said, “There is some issue at the Bhagtanwala garbage dump. We are addressing the issue. It will be sorted out by Sunday.”

It is not only the issue of space, the financial crisis at the SL Infra, the solid waste management company, also led to delay in lifting of the garbage. A finance firm had seized 15 vehicles of the SL Infra due to non-payment of loan installments. According to information, the loan installments of its 135 vehicles are reportedly pending. On Wednesday, the finance firm took its 15 vehicles in its custody, but later the issue was sorted out.

It is worth mentioning here that a Dubai-based company will take over the door-to-door collection work in February after getting the approval of the House.