Blame game raises stink: Corporations say starved of funds, government claims corruption behind mess

NEW DELHI: It is difficult to ascertain the last time the lanes of east Delhi’s Ganesh Nagar were swept properly. The locals despair of any improvement.
By promising a ‘Shining clean Delhi with improved sanitation’ if it is elected for a successive term, the Aam Aadmi Party has now shifted attention to the functioning of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, whose primary responsibility it is to keep the localities clean.But sanitation is such a problem that BJP, which is in a majority in all three municipal corporations of Delhi, admits to a management mess — a fact validated by the poor rankings of the city’s civic bodies in the annual Swachhta rankings. The party, however, chooses to blame the state government, saying its stingy financial grants affect proper sanitation services.

In the past five years, the garbage management infrastructure has seen major mechanisation and several waste processing plants have come up. Yet, for the most part, it is a story of an unending struggle. The capital is only able to process 55% of the 10,500 tonnes of garbage generated every day, as admitted in the Supreme Court by the Delhi chief secretary. While the mayors and the Union urban affairs minister have blamed paucity of funds for the sanitation crisis in the city, Delhi Government has attributed it to the “inefficiency” of the municipalities.
In particular, the underbelly suffers. Jogeshwar Yadav, a resident of Bhumiheen Camp, a JJ colony in south Delhi, said that while water and electricity had improved in recent years, there was no end to their woes about their surroundings. “Open drains flow by our houses, and they are choked and stinky,” said Yadav. All the houses in cramped lanes there dump their domestic waste on Ravidas Marg, where at least cows get rid of the green garbage.
The garbage removers of the non-bovine kind, though, have to fight for their salaries. There were 15 strikes by sanitation workers in the north and east corporations in the past five years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to launch the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan from Valmiki Mandir on Panchkuian Road, but according to workers’ unions, this signified little because over 80,000 sanitation workers of Delhi are the most neglected of the work force. Rajendra Mewati, general secretary, United Front of MCD Employees, said that even if a fraction of money used on the Swachh Bharat campaign had been demarcated for the welfare of sanitation workers, things would have been happier.
Vikaspuri resident Ajay Gupta grumbled, “The civic bodies claim to have hired private concessionaires to collect, segregate, compress and transport municipal waste, but people, whether in unauthorised or regularised colonies, continue to face problems due to erratic garbage collection.” In SDMC’s recent House meeting, the councillors too complained about missing silt vehicles and not enough tippers to collect garbage. “What is the point of investing so much money on machinery for processing or compressing waste when the civic body is unable to manage regular collection of waste?” asked Narendra Kumar, AAP councillor from Manglapuri ward. “We took over Dwarka and other DDA areas without increasing the strength of sanitation staff. In fact, the employed list continues to bear names of those who have died or retired.”
Around half the garbage generated daily goes to the three waste-to-energy plants and the rest end up at the landfills. The three landfills at Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur are at danger levels, though some headway has been made in reducing them through bioremediation. Mohammad Anwar, who lives in Bhalswa Dairy, is an exasperated man. “Not only isn’t our garbage removed regularly, but we also cope with the pollution created by landfill fires and the contaminated groundwater,” Anwar remarked.
Sandeep Kapoor, EDMC standing committee chairman, assured, like officials in all the corporations, of a commitment to clean roads and garbage dumps (dhalaos) at least once a day. “Despite the finance crunch, we have looked at alternative arrangements,” Kapoor said. For its part, Delhi government has consistently claimed to have released the requisite funds to the corporation. It recently cited the CAG audit reports to underscore this point.
According to residents in nine zones under the north and south corporations, the initiative to engage concessionaires for door-to-door collection of garbage is not a long-term solution, particularly because the collector only segregates stuff that can generate income for him, such as plastic, sending the rest to the landfill. Deepak Sood, a resident of IP Extension in east Delhi, pointed out, “Community bins too are in a mess and little attention is paid to clean the drain in the area. The dhalao near Mother Dairy on Narwana Road is often overflowing with garbage and attracts stray animals in large numbers.”
Kamaljeet Sehrawat, leader of the House, SDMC, said the community needs to change habits for the desired results. “We have observed people leaving garbage on roadsides after the collectors have left the area. If we had more funds, we could have handled this,” she said. Clearly, garbage is a big problem. And voters will certainly remember this when their fingers presses the EVM button on February 8.