GURUGRAM: Senior officers of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) will now have to spend two hours on the street every morning checking sanitation work, under orders issued by Municipal Commissioner Pradeep Dahiya on Monday.
All additional commissioners and joint commissioners have been told to be in the field from 10 am to noon daily. They are to visit garbage vulnerable points (GVPs), check whether waste is being lifted on time and sort out problems on the spot rather than through files.
The corporation has also made it compulsory to sprinkle lime at a GVP once it has been cleared. MCG said such sites would be monitored regularly so that garbage does not pile up there again.
Dahiya said the aim was not only to pick up garbage but to make sure cleaned places do not turn into dumping spots again. He asked the officers to stay in regular touch with councillors, ward committee members and resident welfare associations so that local problems reach the corporation quickly.
Some stretches have been marked for special watch. These include the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, Sector 29 and the areas around it, where officers have been told to ensure that construction and demolition waste, horticulture waste and other garbage are removed as soon as they are found. Major entry points into the city and prominent public places are also on the list.
What the first day looked like
On Monday itself, the corporation's updates showed officers fanning out across zones, with cleanliness drives held at several places alongside elected representatives, ward committee members, residents and sanitation workers. Additional Commissioner Ravinder Yadav inspected cleanliness arrangements at Sadar Bazar and checked how the litter picker machine was working in the market.
In Ward 35 of Zone 4, Additional Commissioner Dr Jaiveer Yadav supervised an intensive sanitation drive with about 60 sanitation workers and 20 ward committee members, along with councillor Parminder Kataria. Residents there were asked to keep four separate dustbins at home for segregating waste. Kuldeep, the corporation's Swachhata brand ambassador, joined the councillor in urging people to give up single-use plastic.
Additional Commissioner Ankita Chaudhary was also among the officers who went out on the first day. Joint Commissioner Dr Ashish Singla visited Ward 12 in Sector 39, while Joint Commissioner Dr Naresh Kumar joined Senior Deputy Mayor Dharmbir Bhangrola and residents for a cleanliness drive at Shiv Ji Park in Gyan Wali Gali.
The order comes in the middle of the corporation's GVP Mukt Abhiyan, launched by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on 2 October to clear 21 garbage points in ten days, as Dalimss reported in its story on the campaign launch. On day four, MCG said, it removed the GVP at Gaushala Maidan and began beautifying the site, and did the same at Pace City-1. In both places the corporation appealed to residents not to throw garbage at the cleared sites again.
Daily supervision is the latest in a series of steps the corporation has taken to tighten oversight of sanitation in the wards. Last month it named Sanitation Nodal Assistants for all 36 wards to inspect work and log gaps on the civic app, covered in our report on the ward-level nodal assistants.
Waste coming in from outside the city has been a separate headache. Police have arrested ten people in four cases this month for allegedly trucking garbage and plastic from Delhi into Gurugram, as reported in our story on the Delhi waste dumping arrests.
For residents, the practical change is that a senior officer is now expected to be on the ground in each zone every morning. Complaints about an overflowing point or a pile of construction debris can be raised with the ward councillor or the ward committee, who have been asked to stay in touch with these officers. The test of the order will be whether cleared points stay clean a week later, which is exactly what the commissioner has asked his officers to check.
