The Times of India               28.10.2010

MCG bans dumping of sewage

GURGAON: After cracking the whip and booking people for throwing garbage in the open, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has now turned its heat on housing societies and commercial establishments which dump sewage in the open.

Municipal commissoner R K Khullar said that sewage taken out from housing societies and commercial complexes have to be transported to the sewage treatment plants.

Starting Thursday, offenders will be prosecuted.

There are many housing societies in Gurgaon whose sewage lines are not connected to the main sewage pipes in the city, and it is a very common practice among them to hire a private tanker to carry the dirty water and drain it out at a vacant plot, resulting in the outbreak of diseases like malaria and dengue. The MCG will start prosecuting people under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

Many industrial and commercial establishments, licensed colonies, group housing societies and the agencies hired by them dump wastes in the open. In order to stop this illegal practice, we have decided to prosecute them and make it a cognizable offence under section 188 of IPC, said municipal commissioner Rajesh Khullar.

The commissioner also held a meeting with the tanker owners on Wednesday whose tankers are used to transport the sewage. We told the tanker owners not to throw the sewage anywhere except at the two designated sewage treatment plants at Dhanwapur and Behrampur.

We are also aware that since these plants are located in the outskirts, tanker owners might ask the housing societies to pay them more for the transportation; so we have requested the RWAs to bear the hike and ensure the sewage reaches the right place.

The tankers dont need to take permission or pay a specific amount to dispose the sewage at these plants. They will be given a slip every time they dispose the sewage and the RWAs are required to take maintain a record of these slips, he said.

In order to encourage the practice of disposing off sewage in the righ place, the MCG has announced a cash reward of Rs 1100 to those who post pictures of tankers disposing sewage in the open illegally. The same reward will be given to tanker owners who report housing societies who are not willing to increase the transportation fee and insist on dumping the sewage in the open areas.