Garbage Piles Persist in Sectors 3, 5 and 6

GURUGRAM: Garbage continues to pile up along roads and green belts in sectors 3, 5 and 6, with residents complaining of open dumping, slow lifting and thin sweeping cover even after sanitation workers resumed duty following their strike.

Residents said waste is being dumped repeatedly at the same spots, creating foul smell and unhygienic conditions and attracting rodents and stray animals. TR Adlakha, RWA president of sectors 3, 5 and 6, said garbage was not being lifted at the required pace, that sanitation workers on the ground remained few, and that regular sweeping had not fully resumed.

What MCG says about the backlog

Former RWA president Dinesh Vashisht said people from adjoining areas often dump waste at these locations late at night. Once a spot is cleared, it fills again, he said, urging the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram to penalise open dumping.

An MCG official attributed the slow clearance to the backlog built up during the sanitation workers' strike. The official said a month of accumulated garbage cannot be cleared in a day, that work resumed only from 14 September, and that the situation would gradually come under control as required manpower is deployed area-wise.

The same official said one garbage collection site had been temporarily shut because work was under way there, and that another site at Rajiv Chowk was being used for disposal. That arrangement was causing difficulty for some collection vehicles emptying their loads, the official added.

Residents said roadside heaps were occupying pedestrian space and, on several stretches, spilling onto the carriageway. Older MCG wards already run denser mixed markets and housing than many new sectors, so delayed lifting shows up faster on main lanes and park edges. Civic managers will be judged on whether daily lifting schedules and night patrols against open dumping return to pre-strike levels over the coming week, not only on assurances that the backlog will ease gradually.

Sectors 3, 5 and 6 sit in older municipal wards where green belts and service lanes double as informal dump edges when door-to-door lifting slips. RWA office-bearers said they want published daily route charts, not only verbal assurances, and visible penalties when outsiders tip waste after dark. MCG's point about a temporary site closure and the Rajiv Chowk alternative explains some vehicle turnaround delay, but it does not answer why sweeping strength still looks thin on residential edges a week after work resumed.

If the corporation clears the strike backlog without restoring night vigilance, the same corners will refill. Residents said they will measure progress by whether the main road verges stay clear through a full working week.