Come October 11, the municipal corporation (MC) will make waste segregation mandatory across Chandigarh, MC commissioner KK Yadav said on Wednesday.
Yadav told HT that MC sanitary staff as well as private waste collectors had started informing residents to hand them dry and wet waste separately.
“Residents have a little over a week to develop the habit, since the exercise will be compulsory from October 11. Violators will face fine in line with Municipal Solid Waste Bylaws,” Yadav said, adding that a public notice regarding this will be released in a couple of days.
Municipal Solid Waste Bylaws have provision for penalty against violators. Residents will face a fine of ₹200, while the penalty is ₹500 for businesses. The fine varies between ₹2,000 and ₹10,000 for institutions.
Dry waste includes paper, plastic, fabric, rubber, wood items, metal, glass and recyclable materials, while wet waste comprises cooked and raw food, garden waste, soiled articles and hygiene products.
IS MC READY?
Having already procured new waste collection vehicles to ensure proper door-to-door waste collection and segregation in villages and rehabilitation flats, MC has placed tender to purchase 135 more vehicles to strengthen collection and segregation in commercial areas and city’s periphery.
Waste collection from markets will begin on Monday with deployment of 30 vehicles.
But, the civic body’s real test lies in urban areas — housing city’s 80% population — as private waste collectors have not upgraded their carts to collect segregated waste.
Yadav said despite MC’s best efforts, the waste collectors did not come on board to buy e-karts for storing dry and wet waste separately. Political support was also missing.
“MC has no option but to function with resources at hand,” said Yadav, while adding that the bylaws provided for a ₹2,000 penalty on waste collectors if they failed to handover waste in segregated form to MC.
“All employees manning MC’s waste collection points have been given strict instructions to not accept waste from private collectors unless segregated,” he said.
He also urged residents to contact MC if they were not satisfied with the working of waste collectors. A helpline number for this will be soon released, he added.
Federation of Sector Welfare Associations (FOSWAC) president Balinder Singh Bittu said residents were ready to cooperate with MC, but they must take RWAs into confidence before making it mandatory.
WHAT PROMPTED DECISION?
Pressure from National Green Tribunal (NGT) as MC missed September 30 deadline committed before tribunal in March
Fear of further drop in Swachh Survekshan Ranking after city slipped from India’s third cleanest city to 20th due to failure to launch waste segregation
Waste processing cannot be improved till wet and dry waste is processed separately
