Urban News

Once municipal authorities give their consent, Ramky will take over responsibility of collecting door-to-door garbage besides undertaking solid waste management. The Jawaharnagar dumping yard in the suburbs will then be managed by the company.

The Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA), an NGO which has been fighting for rights of the rag pickers said 15,000 families depending on garbage dumps will be barred from collecting door-to-door garbage.

“Ramky has not yet committed to absorbing these persons involved in door-to-door garbage collection and related works. They might end up being replaced by workers employed by Ramky. Besides, the company will also make money by taking out the scrap from the garbage and reselling it in the open market,”  APSA director S Srinivas Reddy told Expresso.

Though there as many as 15,000 rag pickers spread across the city, GHMC officials have recognised only 5,000. Since the profession does not belong to the organised sector, the rag pickers do not receive any social benefits. A few months ago, three rag pickers who went into the Jawaharnagar dumping yard to pick up scrap got buried after a heap of garbage fell on them. The authorities could recover only one dead body so far.

It is learnt that recently some GHMC corporators were taken to cities across the country by Ramky officials to gain their confidence by demonstrating solid waste management done in an organised manner. The GHMC has signed an MOU with Ramky in 2008.  

Meanwhile, members of APSA approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) complaining about the deplorable conditions of these 15,000 rag pickers as the government authorities were not taking interest in uplifting them. Now their livelihood is also at stake. “We demand programmes like Swaran Jayanti Shahri Yojna (SJSY) to be implemented for all rag pickers. The facilities which the GHMC is willing to provide to Ramky should be given to them so they do not lose their livelihood,” Srinivas Reddy said. SHRC acting chairperson K Peda Peri Reddy has directed the GHMC commissioner and labour commissioner to submit  a report on this matter by November 11.

Finally, Mohali’s search for a site to set up a common municipal solid waste management facility (garbage dumping ground) seems to have ended, with a village panchayat offering its common land for the purpose. The development assumes significance as the several sites selected for the purpose so far have either been rejected by the Union environment ministry’s State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) or have had to be dumped due to stiff opposition by area residents.

After the latest site selected at Swara-Rasanheri-Jhanjeri villages on Mohali’s outskirts was rejected by the SEAC, another site was selected at Samgauli village near Dera Bassi. But the area residents staged a massive protest and declared that they would not allow dumping of garbage in their area at any cost.

It was when the district administration was in such a fix on the issue that the Khairpur village panchayat offered to provide as much land as required for the purpose from the 150 acres of common land available in its village. In an offer letter to Deputy Commissioner (DC) Parveen Kumar, village sarpanch Jagdish Singh, several panchayat members and prominent villagers submitted that since 150 acres of village common land was lying unused, they would have no objection if the common municipal solid waste management facility was established on it.

“You may visit the site and if found suitable, further proceedings may be initiated in this regard,” said the villagers, adding that the location of their village was ideal as it was at equi-distant from Mohali, Kharar, Kurali and Mullanpur. Confirming the development, the DC told Newsline that he had asked ADC (General) Mohinder Singh Kainth to visit the site and submit a report before proposing it for the facility. 

The ADC (general) said he had visited the site and found around 70 acres could be used for the facility after leaving behind the rest of the land close to the inhabited area. “Besides Khairpur, we will also be recommending sites at Samgauli (50 acres) and Nimbuan (70 acres) to the SEAC for consideration, so that whichever site is found suitable can be used for the purpose,” informed Kainth.

With no site finalised yet for the facility, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently ordered the selection of a new alternative site to free Mohali’s densely inhabited Industrial Focal Point, Phase VIII-B, from the garbage dump whose shifting Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had already ordered in June 2009. For the selection of the alternative, the High Court had asked the Punjab chief secretary to constitute a committee comprising of competent officials of the departments concerned.

The dispute
Mohali: Before rejection of the 58.79-acre site at Swara-Rasanheri-Jhanjeri, GMADA had dumped a 76-acre site at Sector 102-A (earmarked in Master Plan), declaring it “inappropriate”. While acquisition proceedings were still underway for the Sector 102-A site before it was rejected, the one in Swara-Rasanheri-Jhanjeri had already been acquired with only the land acquisition award left to be announced.

Before the daily dumping of almost 80 tonnes of solid waste generated by Mohali’s 2.5 lakh population was started at the Industrial Focal Point, Phase VIII-B, here, the dumping ground was shifted from near the Verka Milk Plant, Jagatpura, and Mauli Baidwan villages following public protests.