Gurgaon: A citizen-empowered committee will be constituted to make a blueprint for managing the city’s solid waste, tackle burning in the open, mitigate dust pollution, repair roads riddled with potholes and maintain greenbelts in the city.
The decision was taken in a meeting held on Wednesday which was chaired by Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) chairman P Raghavendra Rao.The meeting was attended by officials of MCG, GMDA and representatives of RWAs.
The committee will work in tandem with other govt agencies and prepare a roadmap to resolve the problems. “A committee will be set up to broadly work on five issues in the city. It will draw up SOPs and a roadmap to help maintain cleanliness. The panel will gradually be delegated powers to levy penalties and ensure strict implementation of the blueprint. The idea is that the public representatives will work with multiple govt agencies, including MCG, GMDA, HSVP etc., to fix accountability. We need to work as a team and end this multiplicity of agencies,” the HSPCB chairman said.
Rao recommended that the committee should come up with suggestions within 15 days. He also said that the committee should frequently meet and discuss issues.
“Fixing accountability is important and putting onus only on RWAs is not enough. If we complain about waste burning, fire fighting vehicles are sent to douse the fire. We don’t only want spot fixing, we want systemic changes. MCG and other agencies should first look at what their job is,” said Shona Chatterjee, a resident who attended the meeting.
Another resident, Rajesh Gera said, “Multiplicity of agencies is a big problem. Everybody shrugs off their responsibilities and passes work to RWAs. I had filed a complaint about a road and it took the agencies six months to tell me which agency would resolve the issue.”
“We are going to begin with solid waste management and work to provide an end-to-end solution. We will gradually cover solid waste, C&D waste management and then waste burning. Our approach will be systemic. We can be better than Indore,” said Gauri Sarin, convener of citizen group ‘Making Model Gurugram’, who has been asked to lead the committee.
The issues of encroachment on green belts and illegal dumping of construction waste there was also raised by the residents in the meeting. On this, Subhash Chander Yadav, the head of the urban environment division in GMDA, said, “We have formulated a plan to first remove the encroachments and then fence the green belts. This would ensure that squatters do not return and violators are unable to dump construction waste on the green belts.”
On the C&D waste, it was discussed that the civic body had already floated a tender and the final call will now be taken by the state govt. Additional commissioner Balpreet Singh said that the draft of the solid waste management bye-laws is ready, but they are awaiting suggestions from the residents before finalising it.
The decision was taken in a meeting held on Wednesday which was chaired by Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) chairman P Raghavendra Rao.The meeting was attended by officials of MCG, GMDA and representatives of RWAs.
The committee will work in tandem with other govt agencies and prepare a roadmap to resolve the problems. “A committee will be set up to broadly work on five issues in the city. It will draw up SOPs and a roadmap to help maintain cleanliness. The panel will gradually be delegated powers to levy penalties and ensure strict implementation of the blueprint. The idea is that the public representatives will work with multiple govt agencies, including MCG, GMDA, HSVP etc., to fix accountability. We need to work as a team and end this multiplicity of agencies,” the HSPCB chairman said.
Rao recommended that the committee should come up with suggestions within 15 days. He also said that the committee should frequently meet and discuss issues.
“Fixing accountability is important and putting onus only on RWAs is not enough. If we complain about waste burning, fire fighting vehicles are sent to douse the fire. We don’t only want spot fixing, we want systemic changes. MCG and other agencies should first look at what their job is,” said Shona Chatterjee, a resident who attended the meeting.
Another resident, Rajesh Gera said, “Multiplicity of agencies is a big problem. Everybody shrugs off their responsibilities and passes work to RWAs. I had filed a complaint about a road and it took the agencies six months to tell me which agency would resolve the issue.”
“We are going to begin with solid waste management and work to provide an end-to-end solution. We will gradually cover solid waste, C&D waste management and then waste burning. Our approach will be systemic. We can be better than Indore,” said Gauri Sarin, convener of citizen group ‘Making Model Gurugram’, who has been asked to lead the committee.
The issues of encroachment on green belts and illegal dumping of construction waste there was also raised by the residents in the meeting. On this, Subhash Chander Yadav, the head of the urban environment division in GMDA, said, “We have formulated a plan to first remove the encroachments and then fence the green belts. This would ensure that squatters do not return and violators are unable to dump construction waste on the green belts.”
On the C&D waste, it was discussed that the civic body had already floated a tender and the final call will now be taken by the state govt. Additional commissioner Balpreet Singh said that the draft of the solid waste management bye-laws is ready, but they are awaiting suggestions from the residents before finalising it.