Chandigarh, January 11, 2009: Faced with unending problems of garbage collection system and mushrooming SSK’s (Sahaj Safai Kendra’s) in the city, a meeting of Resident Welfare Associations (RWA’s) under the banner of Federation of Sector Welfare Association (FOSWAC) an apex body comprising of 46 RWA’s was held today at Community Centre in Sector 21, Chandigarh.
Voicing their concerns Mr. Sunil Chopra, President, Sector Welfare Association, Sector 18 C said that presently residents of the city are facing numerous problems at the hand of independent safai-wallas or private contractors, who charge exorbitantly and are accountable to none. Plus the SSK’s build by MC for garbage collection at Sector level are fast becoming another eyesore with splattered garbage, breeding ground for flies, mosquitoes and a safe heaven for antisocial elements.
Addressing the residents Dr. Satnam Singh, a former WHO Programme Director said that world over Solid Waste Management is the sole responsibility of the local Municipal Corporations and Solid Waste, once it leaves the house, shop or other institutions need to be transported to the final disposable site i.e. either sanitary land fill or garbage treatment plan without any stop in between like SSK or garbage bins.
Sharing his concerns PC Sanghi, Chairman, FOSWAC told the media that they have decided today to present a memorandum to Administrator, Chandigarh Administration seeking therein that Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh should arrange the door to door collection and segregation of garbage as is being done by a number of other Corporations/ Municipalities i.e. Panjim, Suryapet, Pune, Bhadreswar, Kalyani, Delhi, Jaipur, Nagpur, Chennai, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Vellore, Mumbai etc. and for these services they can charge reasonable waste collection charges with water and electricity bills. He further said that till such time, the above policy is adopted by the Corporation, it should give a legal mandate to RWA’s to run the door to door garbage collection scheme plus proper police verification of all waste collectors including issue of identity cards are must. He also said that MC should immediately stop construction of new SSK’s and review the present ones and there should be regular meetings once every quarter between the representatives of RWAs and the officials of Municipal Corporation to evaluate the possibility of bringing improvement in the scheme.
Participating in the debate Mr. Parmod Sharma, Coordinator of Yuvsatta said that due to rapid urbanization and uncontrolled growth rate of population in the city, Municipal solid waste has become one of the critical issue in environmental management and in pursuance of Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2000 and Supreme Court judgment in case of Almitra H. Patel and another Vs. Union of India and others, the door to door collection of garbage and green waste and its segregation at source is required to be implemented by the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, in order to achieve cleanliness, which is next to Godliness.
RWA members were also of the view that if they didn’t get any relief in this matter from Administrator of MC officials they’ll move a PIL in the Court to seek necessary directions.