Mohali: We all are aware that Mohali City has slipped to 113th position out of the total of 382 cities and huge amount is being spent by Municipal Corporation Mohali on various projects as Mohali aims at emerging as the new realty hotspot, with swanky apartment buildings and luxury housing societies cropping up at every nook and corner, but on ground level it is yet to put in place a proper waste collection system.
The Aman Sandesh Times team visited several phases and sectors in Mohali and found that discarded garbage can be seen openly at several places including selfies point Phase 9, on vacant plots and sites, marring the beauty of the city.
Residents added that Mohali has not been able to remove garbage dumps. With even so called posh areas pockmarked with garbage, mainly on roadsides, residents feel that the Municipal Corporation is not really serious about making garbage-free Mohali.
A senior citizen said, besides being eyesores, such dumps also pose a threat to the health of residents, residents feel and added garbage menace is a show of incompetency of the MC.
Municipal corporation (MC) authorities claim that the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) doesn’t have a dumping site of its own so the waste generated at its newly developed societies, including Aerocity, New Chandigarh, TDI City, etc, are dumped on roads and plots falling within civic body limits.
It is pertinent to mention here that several councillors rising above party lines also took up the issue of the nationwide Swachh Survekshan ranking, last year, Mohali got 81st rank and in 2020, it was on 157th place. Who Cares???
Waste management
Mohali generates 100 metric tonnes (MT) of solid waste daily, including 40 MT of wet and 60 MT mixed waste. An MC official said, “While dry waste, including plastic items, is recycled, the wet waste is turned into compost. There are 14 resource management centres across the city where the waste is segregated for processing.”
Legacy waste, a challenge
The Phase 8 garbage dump site has a total of 3.30 lakh cubic metre legacy waste.
Municipal Commissioner Mohali, Navjot Kaur said, I have instructed the concerned officials to ensure proper cleaning at all places in Mohali and added active public participation is must to help administration and requested general public to be self disciplined .