Waste pickup, worker shortage to dominate MCG House meeting

Gurgaon: The worsening sanitation crisis is set to dominate Monday’s MCG House meeting, with councillors expected to raise poor waste collection, an acute shortage of sanitation workers and alleged violations by private sanitation agencies.MCG officials, however, said the urban local bodies department has granted administrative approval for a Rs 440-crore mechanised and manual road-sweeping project aimed at improving sanitation and curbing dust pollution in the city over the next five years.Ward 8 Councillor Naresh Kataria alleged that although the contracted agency was supposed to deploy 10 vehicles for doorstep garbage collection, only two to three are operating in the area. “The matter should be investigated by the MCG and I’ll raise this issue in the House meeting. Such companies should be blacklisted so that the city does not suffer,” he said.Kuldeep Yadav, the councillor of Ward 11, blamed the deteriorating sanitation situation on an acute shortage of sanitation workers and proposed that the MCG seek 2,500 additional workers from the state govt through a formal proposal.Meanwhile, the sanitation workers’ strike continued on Saturday, leading to garbage piling up along roadsides and vacant plots across the city. The workers have warned that if their demands are not met by Sunday, they will go on an indefinite strike from Monday. “We will decide our further strategy and announce on Monday. We have already sent our demand charter to the CM through the city mayor,” Basant Kumar of the union said.According to the MCG officials, the sweeping project will cover all MCG zones in two clusters. Rs 200 crore has been approved for Cluster-1, which comprises zones 1 and 2, and Rs 240 crore has been cleared for Cluster-2, covering zones 3 and 4. The approval has been granted in line with revised request for proposal norms and directions of the Commission for Air Quality Management.“The project is intended to strengthen the road-sweeping system and reduce roadside dust, a major contributor to air pollution in NCR,” a senior MCG official said.