Tired of promises, Delhiites seek an end to garbage crisis

With municipal polls round the corner, Delhiites have made it clear that they are in no mood for more empty promises as far as the garbage crisis in the city is concerned. The problem of solid waste management has been haunting the residents for far too long, and people now want some concrete solutions. 

“There is no proper garbage collection system. In most areas, garbage is overflowing from dhalaos (landfills), leading to unhygienic and unhealthy living conditions. The overall cleanliness of our area has severely deteriorated,” said BS Vohra, a resident of Krishna Nagar and President of the East Delhi Residents Welfare Association (RWA) Joint Front. 

In the last two years, the municipal sanitation workers in east Delhi have gone on a strike for as many as five times, over issues such as delayed salary payment. The entire region is dotted with dhalaos bursting at the seams and roads are lined with garbage. The overflowing dhalaos in residential colonies have given birth to a stray animal menace as well. In most authorised colonies, door-to-door garbage collection is organised by RWAs themselves.

And it is not just east Delhi. The civic bodies across the Capital seem to have failed in their plans to segregate waste into organic, non-organic, and e-waste categories. Some RWAs had proposed to make compost pits in each housing locality, to turn kitchen waste into manure. The civic bodies, however, failed to frame a proper policy in this regard. 

V K Aggarwal, a resident of pocket-B in Vasant Kunj, said: “We met the corporation leaders and presented a memorandum to make compost pits to manage organic waste. We also built one in our colony park. It has to be a serious and sustained effort, as the issue is large. So far, the corporation has not shown any willingness to address the issue.”

Meanwhile, Congress, which has made a comeback in Punjab, is pinning all its hopes on the MCD polls scheduled for April 22, with their agenda focusing on two burning issues in the Capital -- solid waste management and environment. The party is taking help from former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. 

Congress Chief Ajay Maken said: “We are coming up with proper solutions for these two major problems in the city. We are not going to play the blame game. For Delhi, we will give point-to-point solutions, which we are preparing after a lot of discussion with our senior leaders. We have collected data from all major organisations working in this direction. The plan will be released next week.”