It has been four days since Diwali, and Gurgaon residents are still waiting for sanitation workers to clean up the garbage piled up in several areas.
Heaps of waste line Gurgaon roads. City Spidey spoke to residents and found out that workers have been demanding money from residents to do their job. Manoj Mohanty from DLF Phase 3 alleged that sanitation workers demanded Rs 1,100 from them for cleaning up the Diwali waste — used crackers, empty boxes — from the roads.
Another resident from the same area, Ved Prakash Chawla, said sanitation workers came to collect Diwali gifts on October 31, but when they were asked to clean the roads in the area on November 2, they asked for money. “When residents refused, the sanitation workers left without cleaning anything up. The area was partially cleaned up by ragpickers this morning,” he said.
The story is the same in other areas too, even the posh ones. Garbage lies unattended in places such as Civil Lines, Sector 9 and Old Delhi Road.
Prakash Gulati, a resident, complained, “This is unfortunate! The government makes tall claims, but only on paper. Garbage can be seen piled up on roads, trash bins are overflowing — and workers don’t even bother! The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon [MCG] should come up with a permanent solution and monitor the functioning of ground-level employees.”
Resident Inderjeet Ahlawat couldn't agree more. He said, "The MCG needs to fix accountability and keep a check on its employees."
The city was the first in the state to rope in a private company for collecting and transporting garbage, but the scheme seems to have largely failed, Ahlawat added.
