Karnal civic body faces residents' wrath over poor waste management

Tribune News Service

Parveen Arora

Karnal, September 9

The Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) is facing the wrath of residents for poor garbage management for the past several days.

Garbage in the open a health hazard

Removing garbage is one of the prime activities of the KMC, but the waste is piling up at secondary collection points and alongside roads, posing a health hazard. — Raj Kumar Girdhar, Resident

The residents are struggling to deal with the garbage piling up at 40 secondary garbage points along with other places in the city.

The waste management scenario in the city has deteriorated after the private garbage collection contractor, who was handed over the responsibility of collecting the waste from secondary points to solid waste management plant, reportedly stopped the lifting work some days ago due to which garbage lifting has taken a severe hit.

A round of the city showed a ‘dismal’ picture of poor garbage management. Several areas across the city have heaps of garbage which have not been cleared for the past several days due to alleged dispute between the civic body and the contractor. Due to the stoppage of the lifting work from the secondary points, as per an estimate by the authorities, around 1,000 tonnes of garbage has been lying at different points in the city.

“Removing garbage is one of the prime activities of the KMC, but the waste is piling up at secondary collection points and alongside the roads, posing a health hazard. The garbage is not regularly cleared from these points, which is now stinking,” said Raj Kumar Girdhar, a resident.

Poor management of garbage in the city might adversely affect the ranking of the city in the Swachh Survekshan, so the authorities should take this issue very seriously, said Rohit Bhargava, a resident of Sector 7.

Karnal city generates around 180 tonnes of garbage daily. The door-to-door collection work is done by the KMC’s manpower, which collects garbage from households and dumps it at 40 different secondary collection points. From the secondary points, the private contractor lifts the garbage and takes it to the plant for further processing.

The irregular lifting of garbage from the secondary collection points has put immense pressure on the KMC. Now, the KMC has hired 10 tractor-trailers to shift garbage from the secondary points to the solid waste management plant.

“We have hired 10 tractor-trailers to lift garbage from the secondary points to the plant, to streamline the situation. We have also floated a tender for 30 tractor and 60 trailers along with manpower for sometime to clear the garbage. The tender process for the regular garbage collection is underway and in the new tender, there will be no secondary collection points,” said Devender Narwal, Executive Officer, KMC.

Since, the private contractor has stopped work, a notice has been served to the contractor, he said. “We have also started the process of taking the garbage from door to door directly to the plant with the available manpower,” said the EO.

At present, the KMC has 1,062 sanitation workers, 120 tippers, one tractor-trailer, four JCB machines, two dumper/placer. The sanitation workers are involved in cleaning and door-to-door collection work, he added.

About The Author

Tribune News Service

The Tribune News Service brings you the latest news, analysis and insights from the region, India and around the world. Follow the Tribune News Service for a wide-ranging coverage of events as they unfold, with perspective and clarity.

#karnal