Clearing <i>dhalaos</i> twice a day: No mean feat, says EDMC
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Clearing dhalaos twice a day: No mean feat, says EDMC

Residents of East Delhi may not get relief from the stench coming from garbage collection points, as EDMC grapples with inadequate manpower and funds.

Clearing <i>dhalaos</i> twice a day: No mean feat, says EDMC A garbage collection point in Mayur Vihar Phase I Extension.

Despite Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung directing civic bodies to clear dhalaos or garbage collection points twice a day, residents of group housing societies in East Delhi may not get relief from garbage-dump stench anytime soon.

To know how far the directions have been brought into effect by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), City Spidey spoke to Satya Sharma, EDMC mayor, and Rajender Chaudhary, standing committee chairman of EDMC.

It turns out that clearing the garbage collection points twice in a day is a big challenge for EDMC. Chaudhary said, “Clearing all the dhalaos twice a day is not an easy task, as there is shortage of man power and necessary infrastructure.”

According to him, the EDMC has about 10,000 sanitation workers for clearing more than 3,000 garbage collection points, cleaning roads and other work. Of these 10,000, only 4,500 are regular workers. The rest have been hired on a contractual basis.

“We need at least 25,000 sanitation workers to clear all dhalaos once a day. We depend on contractual workers for a limited period due to shortage of money. About 100 sanitation workers retire every year. They were last recruited in 1998,” he added.

With garbage often seen left unattended for a week at many garbage collection points, such as in Mayur Vihar Phase I Extension, clearing them is no mean feat for the civic body. Moreover, inadequate equipment has made the task all the more difficult.

Satya Sharma, EDMC mayor, said, “At present, EDMC has 150 small-size dumpers to carry garbage; 70 were hired last month; 20 big dumpers have been hired from private contractors. But, we need at least 50 big-size and 400 small-size dumpers.”

On being asked if the EDMC had started clearing the garbage collection points twice a day, she said that it was impossible to do so. She added, “All dhalaos are divided into two categories — critical and normal. About 70 are under critical category, while the rest come under normal category. East Delhi has about 3,000 dhalaos. We are already clearing these critical dhalaos twice a day.”