Waste rots in holy city as dispute rages over garbage dump

AMRITSAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-hyped Swachh Bharat Abhiyan takes a beating in the Holy City after the Amritsar municipal corporation (AMC) stopped lifting garbage due to the ongoing political fight over the waste dumping site, posing a serious threat of the outbreak of epidemics.
After Amritsar (South) MLA Inderbir Singh Bolaria warned against throwing city’s garbage at the Bhagtanwala dump in his assembly constituency, waste has been lying on city streets and roads.“The city has grown and population has increased. There should be a garbage dump in every assembly constituency,” he had said.
People of 17 localities have been sitting on a dharna for more than two weeks, demanding shifting of the dumpsite. Protestors said that the issue has brought BJP and Akali leaders face-to-face and they have been indulging in a political slugfest rather than finding a solution.
Ashok Kumar, who runs a shop in Katra Dullo, said, “This way, India will never be clean. They (leaders) are doing politics on garbage, but it is the common man who has become victim. If some epidemic spreads, who will be responsible,” he asked. Pointing towards a huge heap of debris in front of his shop, Ashok said that even customers had stopped coming to his shop due piles of garbage.
The safai karamcharis are expressing helplessness.
Safai Sewak Union president Vinod Bitta told that they were helpless as people living near Bhagatanwala dump were not allowing them to throw garbage there. Besides, the local MLA had also told us not to dump waste in his assembly constituency. “We also found a four-acre piece of land near Fatahpur village, but couldn’t dump garbage there also due to villagers’ protest,” he said, adding that they would work overtime to clean the city, but the AMC needs to give them a place to dump the garbage.
Meanwhile, municipal councillor from ward number 24, Gurinder Rishi, has given five days’ ultimatum to Amritsar mayor to lift garbage from the city. He has threatened to dump garbage before his office. “These BJP leaders are too eager to hold brooms in their hands to pose before cameras. In reality, they have closed their eyes and exposed people to grave danger of diseases,” he argued.
Meanwhile, Dr H S Ghai, senior medical officer at Amritsar civil hospital warned that if the garbage is not properly dumped, there are chances of an outbreak of diseases such as jaundice and diarrhoea.
When contacted, mayor Bakshi Ram Arora admitted that garbage was not being lifted from areas of Amritsar (North) and Amritsar (Centre) assembly constituencies because people living around the dump site were not allowing throwing waste. However, he said that five trolleys of garbage were being lifted from the vicinity of the Golden Temple and Durgiana temple that are visited by thousands of tourists everyday. He said that a meeting was held with Amritsar deputy commissioner to find more dumping sites, especially ones that have bigger and deeper pits
Capt proposes help
Amritsar MP and Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Captain Amarinder Singh has offered to provide substantial money from his local area development fund for a garbage disposal and treatment plant if Punjab government came out with some concrete proposal for a permanent solution to solve the problem of waste in the Holy City. Amarinder said that the expenditure involved in setting up a treatment plant was too huge to be met from MPLAD funds, but he could still make a substantial contribution from the Rs 5 crore granted to an MP every year.
Stating that the state government was almost bankrupt, Amarinder suggested that MPs across Punjab come forward to provide substantial grants in their respective areas so that the garbage disposal problems were solved permanently. The former Punjab chief minister said he would take up the matter with the Union government, particularly the urban development ministry and expressed confidence of getting substantial grants for the purpose of disposal and treatment of waste.
He pointed out there was no reason why the central and state governments should not pool their resources for cleaning the cities particularly when they were so vigorously campaigning for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.
Talking specifically about the Bhagtanwala garbage dump in Amritsar, Capt Amarinder said he was closely following the matter at various levels. He said he had made it a priority that the garbage disposal in the Holy City was done in a sophisticated and hygienic manner. “I hope to see Amritsar as a model city for the whole of Punjab in handling its waste and garbage,” he said.