The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), in the presence of hundreds of representatives from resident welfare associations (RWAs) and management of various societies across the sub-city made an announcement through the leader of the house, Kamaljeet Sehrawat and the then deputy commissioner of the corporation, Najafgarh zone that Sector 22 and 23 would be made model sectors as far as waste management is concerned. But sadly, it has been more than 5 months and nothing concrete or fruitful can be seen at the ground level.
In a public meet held at SDMC community hall on October 4 last year, the civic body concerned assured that within three days, both these sectors would see big change taking place on waste management with proper segregation and composting. Besides, a review meeting was held too in this regard but people of the area alleged that no initiatives, actions have taken place yet.
M S Suri, vice president of New Millennium Apartments (Sector 23) said, “We sensitised our society people on the subject and started segregation work too. But we noticed the corporation people, strangely, were not cooperative. Their approach still remains the same and this shows the big claims made by them were just lip service because the reality is something different.”
However, the corporation has claimed to have made at least 50 composting pits in the neighbourhood parks for community composting but the dedicated infra is not in proper use due to mismanaged segregation and constant opposition by locals.
S L Langar, president of Green Tower Apartments (Sector 23) said, “There is one change that I have witnessed personally and that is when we call them, they do the work. I mean, they clear the spot and make it garbage-free. They are prompt in that sense but on the whole, the idea of waste management is still to become a success here.”
Residents further added the RWAs and management of several societies were ready to follow all the rules in order to make it a successful initiative but the response shown by the SDMC was not enthusiastic as far as the output was concerned.
DC Mathur, a resident of New Kanchanjunga Apartments and general secretary of Sukh Dukh Ke Sathi Sanstha, said, "This was just an announcement like any other made previously. I mean, we asked the officials of the civic body concerned to start it in at least 4 societies as a pilot project. We assured them to cooperate to make it a grand success but that could not happen due to their callous approach."
People of the area opined that SDMC should adopt a very serious approach so that waste management does not seem to be a 'distant dream' in these sectors or in general across Dwarka in the future.
