Trash war on as Mohali MC stops entry of dump trucks from GMADA areas

The ongoing garbage dumping crisis in Mohali has escalated into a fierce standoff between the local municipal corporation (MC) and the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).

Taking its gloves off, MC has blocked garbage trucks from GMADA areas from entering its jurisdiction, citing overwhelming waste processing burden exacerbated by recent government directives.

To restrict the entry of garbage vehicles coming from “outside”, the civic body has deployed teams all around its territory — near IISER, Balongi, Phase 3-A, and Sectors 88 and 89.

Moreover, teams, comprising four officials each, are also standing guard at its 14 resource management centres (RMCs), ensuring no garbage from outside MC areas is dumped at these points.

For years, the 14 RMCs had been tackling around 200 tonnes of garbage daily — a significant portion of which came from GMADA areas — processing most and dumping the rest at the Phase 8-B dumping ground.

But chaos erupted after Punjab local bodies secretary Ajoy Sharma on Tuesday directed MC to stop garbage dumping at the landfill in the wake of Punjab and Haryana high court’s recent directions to adopt bioremediation measures at the site, where a mountain of 2.5 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste is standing. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) is also closely monitoring the site.

The order translated into MC being forced to handle the entire garbage at the RMCs itself, causing the centres to overflow with waste.

“Out of the total 200 tonnes of garbage that was being dumped at the Phase 8-B site, only around 60 tonnes of garbage was generated from the city, including 40 tonnes from residential areas and 20 tonnes from markets. The rest came from GMADA areas,” said a senior MC official while blaming the authority for the crisis.

“Despite several requests, GMADA did not establish their own RMC points while developing areas like Aerocity, Ecocity, IT City, etc. Many meetings were held for the same, but the garbage from areas under GMADA continued to compound MC’s garbage burden. The civic body has created infrastructure as per the needs of its areas, but it’s forced to manage garbage from GMADA areas and even Chandigarh,” the officer added.

On GMADA’s part, chief administrator Moneesh Kumar said, “We are taking the issue very seriously and thus we are going to hold a meeting with all stakeholders, including the MC commissioner and the PMIDC managing director for appropriate solution.”

He assured that GMADA will be expediting work for construction of three RMCs while also looking for an alternative site to dump the garbage, adding that the solid waste from the authority’s areas did not exceed 7 tonnes for now.

Meanwhile, Pawan Godiyal, the head of the Mohali Sanitation Workers’ Union, said if MC and GMADA failed to come up with a solution post their meeting on Monday, the workers will strike work.

On Friday, the sanitation workers had staged a protest by throwing waste in front of the GMADA office in Phase 8.

While the area from Phase 1 till Phase 11, besides Sectors 65 to 80, along with Sector 48-C, comes under MC limits, the areas under GMADA include Aerocity, IT City, Wave Estate, TDI, GILCO, Sectors 88, 89, 90, 91, 104 and 105, and Balongi.

MC also starts slapping fines on residents for unsegregated waste

Buried in the garbage crisis, Mohali MC has also started challaning residents for unsegregated waste.

MC’s sanitation wing has issued over 20 such challans to residents and garbage collectors, besides seizing their vehicles for not segregating solid waste into dry and wet.

MC teams checked houses in multiple sectors and phases, including Sectors 67, 80, Phases 3 and 7, slapping fines ranging from ₹250 to ₹1,000 on violators.

“Residents need to understand their civic responsibility. They need to segregate wet and dry waste at home. We have started rigorous door-to-door challan drive and are also spreading awareness. Moreover, vehicles dumping the waste at RMCs without segregation are also being challaned,” said Sarabjit Singh, chief sanitary officer, Mohali MC.

Meanwhile, sanitation teams also raided shops in Sohana selling banned plastic and challaned people found dumping garbage on roads.