In an attempt to involve citizens of the city, Municipal Commissioner K K Yadav suggested the residents welfare associations (RWAs) to register themselves as “bulk waste generators” and carry out segregation of waste in their respective sectors. Advertising The initiative comes after the poor showing of Chandigarh— which slipped from No 3 to No 20 — in the Swacch Survekshan this year. Segregation of waste at household level was one field where Chandigarh faced very poorly. As per SWM Rules, 2016, ‘bulk waste generator’ includes buildings occupied by the Central government departments or undertakings, date government departments or undertakings, local bodies, public sector undertakings or private companies, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, commercial establishments, markets, places of worship, sports complexes having an average waste generation rate exceeding 100kg per day”. The cooperative group housing societies having more than 300 flats or built up on 5,000 sqm area are also termed as bulk waste generators. “We have urged the residents welfare associations to register themselves as bulk waste generators with us and can give us segregated waste,” Municipal Commissioner KK Yadav told the Chandigarh Newsline. Advertising Several residents welfare associations have expressed their willingness to cooperate with the initiative. “To bring in more quality and ease of management, the corporation should outsource door-to-door waste collection activity to the RWAs which volunteer to collect waste and ensure its segregation at source. Such collected waste can be transferred to MC docking and waste recovery centres or made available at the designated pickup locations for MCC vehicles. But for this, the MCC should formulate the terms of agreements after mutual discussions with the respective RWAs,” said Vinod Vashisht, convener of City Forum of Residents Welfare Organisations (CFORWO) and president of Government Houses Residents Welfare Society (GHRWS). Vashisht added that under this arrangement, individual households should not be charged user fee (which varies from Rs 50 to Rs 350 depending upon the area of the dwelling unit), but that RWA should be treated as a ‘bulk waste generator’ and charged a lump sum user fee of Rs 2,000 per month as per entry 18 of Schedule I of the bylaws. Yadav’s suggestion comes after the independent garbage collectors who had to sign an MOU with the MC did not turn up for the meeting despite repeated attempts to contact them by officers. Yadav’s consistent efforts to take over waste collection from independent garbage collectors in order to enforce segregation have failed owing to alleged political interference. Yadav had consistently made attempts to take over waste collection as independent garbage collectors not just left many areas unattended but also did not go ahead with segregation. The municipal corporation could not go ahead to enforce penalties as this way the collectors were not under them. In December’s general house meeting, it was decided that the independent garbage collectors sign an MoU with the civic body to ensure that segregation will take place. The deadline was March 31. The corporation officers had constantly been calling representatives of the garbage collectors for the meeting to sign the MoU but they had not been responding. There are 2.50 lakh households in the city from where waste is generated. According to MC report, around 40,000 households are left unattended. Recently, 13 more villages have been given to Municipal Corporation. For this, MC has purchased 100 twin bin hoppers to collect segregated waste. Commissioner Yadav said that these 40,000 households and 13 villages will set an example in the city for others. About independent waste collectors not responding to MC’s attempts to sign MoU, Yadav said, “We will place our status report before the general house.” However, Chandigarh Mayor Rajesh Kalia had supported independent garbage collectors in the past. What RWAs have to say “MC should help willing RWAs to acquire infrastructure on lines of a soft policy.” Santosh Nada, Vice President of PGI Doctors RWA Sector 24 “I feel the present garbage collectors may be provided necessary infrastructure for segregation and collection. Those already on the job may not lose their livelihood.” Kedarnath Sharma, President, Sector 46 RWA “There will be problems of self-segregation as no separate dustbins are provided. We should get the infrastructure in place first. ‘’ GS Ahluwalia, President of Sector 43 RWA “Residents must be made aware of its benefits. Before implementing MC should makes sure that residents will be provided the best door-to-door collection.” Neha Arora, President RWA HIG Upper Sector 38 West Advertising “Since this needs substantial capital investment, the entire operation should be under one single authority. ‘’ JP Yadav, President, RWA Sector 37A.

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