Urban News

The Hindu 03.05.2010

Ajees Nagar's growing garbage problem

Staff Reporter

Mounting woes: Garbage on the roadside at Ajees Nagar in Puducherry.

PUDUCHERRY: Residents of Ajees Nagar are facing a host of civic problems, particularly the lack of a proper garbage disposal system. Municipal Road in Ajees Nagar is one of the most badly affected: one side is lined with houses, the other with mounds of garbage. Residents allege that garbage collected from other areas by the municipality is dumped here.

P. Sivaraj, a resident, says that garbage is not being cleared on a regular basis. Besides, roadside drains are also not desilted regularly. This leads to sewage stagnation and overflow. It also increases mosquito menace in the area, he adds.

Anti-social elements exploit a thick patch of vegetation on the other side of Municipal Road and gather there to consume liquor. Roads have not been laid for many years and streetlights do not function properly, Sivaraj rues.

Sujatha, a resident of 1 {+s} {+t} Cross, Ajees Nagar, highlights the need for laying proper roads in the area. Authorities concerned should regularly carry out fogging operations to tackle mosquito menace, she says.

Anitha of Karuna Jyothi Street says that people keep dumping more waste on the garbage which has not been cleared for the last few months.

Providing public dustbins could be of some help as the residents could use them for disposing the waste, she says.

The Hindu 03.05.2010

MCD to focus on cleaning of drains near Games sites

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: With the Commonwealth Games just round the corner, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to pull up its socks by giving special emphasis to cleaning and de-silting of drains around the CWG sites in the Capital.

According to MCD Leader of House Subhash Arya, work on cleaning of drains has been started well ahead of the monsoon this year. There are a total of 1,550 drains that fall in the civic body's area of jurisdiction.

"We have started de-silting of drains months ago with top priority being given to the areas where the Commonwealth Games stadia are located. After the Games we would be drafting a new strategy to ensure that all drains in our area are cleaned up on a regular basis by our staff,” he added.

The MCD has also procured special equipments for the purpose and one round of de-silting was completed in February. The ongoing second round will be completed in June.

Mr. Arya said: “Apart from two existing super sucker machines we have purchased two new super sucker machines and the order for procurement of a few more machines has already been placed.”

For better coordination and more effective de-silting of drains, the civic body also transferred all the works of cleaning of drains to the Department of Environment Management Services (DEMS) in three of the 12 municipal zones this past week.

Mr. Arya said: "The work of de-silting of drains more than four-foot deep in respect of Rohini, Najafgarh and Narela zones has been delinked from the Engineering Department and transferred to DEMS. It will be introduced in other zones keeping in view the administrative requirements for better maintenance and de-silting of drains.”

“Since the majority of construction and repair work carried out by the Delhi Metro and other agencies for the Commonwealth Games would wind up before the upcoming monsoon season, we do not anticipate any problems such as overflowing drains this season,” he added.