4 hours Ago
Times News Network Ludhiana: With the secondary garbage collection point near Jawahar Camp market closed for the past five days due to non-functional compactors, garbage collection from houses has been affected. Sanitation workers are not lifting garbage from houses as they will have to dump it at a secondary collection point. Officials also said that with the machinery developing a technical snag, they could not get garbage collected and lifted.
Both the compactors installed here by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) during the Congress tenure have faced issues. Initially, garbage could not be lifted from inside due to overhead wires. Thereafter, the compactor did not have enough capacity to take the load of garbage coming from nearby areas.
Recently, former councillor Mamta Ashu flagged issues with the dumpsite when she saw heaps of garbage on the road. She also questioned the working of civic officials and ruling party MLA, Gurpreet Gogi. The MLA asked officials to increase the capacity of the compactor and get the site working again in a week.
However, the site is completely closed now. A poster on the wall warns that violators will be challaned. On Friday, former councillor Baljinder Singh Bunty went live on social media to raise the issue.
He claimed that the site has been locked for the past few days and police personnel have been deployed at night to prevent dumping of garbage. He added that this had left residents hassled as garbage was not being collected regularly. He claimed that after he went live on social media, ruling party leaders got garbage collected and dumped it under the poster warning of action.
However, medical officer, health Vipal Malhotra said, “The machinery needs either replacement or repair. We are getting the best possible solution.” He said that MC commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal visited the site on Friday and asked officials concerned to get the machinery repaired as soon as possible.
A resident of Jawahar Nagar camp, Vinod Kumar said, “Garbage has not been lifted from my house for the past five days as the collector did not come. Where should I go to throw garbage in the city? On the one hand, MC officials issue advisory not to dump garbage on the roadside but on the other, they are unable to assure door-to-door garbage lifting.” He added that the collection point in the market needs to be widened so that garbage can be dumped and lifted properly.
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