Improved Swachhta ranking fails to impress Gurugram residents

Gurugram: The Millennium City has marginally improved its Swachhta Ranking this year, rising from the 112th position to 107 in the 'Swachhta Sarvekshan' conducted by the Centre.

Scepticism, however, still persists among Gurugram residents, who feel the city is still not clean and effective solutions have not been found to resolve the garbage problem.

In several areas including Subhash Nagar, Gurugram railway station, Sikanderpur, Nathupur and Sector-17, massive piles of garbage are strewn in the open.

Moreover, mounds of garbage at Bandhwari landfill site continue to pile on each day, with 1,000 tonnes of garbage from Gurugrm and Faridabad being dumped daily.

There are also reports that now waste is also being dumped around other green areas of Aravallis.

Even as the Haryana government has announced that the waste-to-energy plant in the 30-acre landfill site will be recycled, the project is yet to see the light of day as residents are many protesting the move.

Moreover, despite the presence of a construction and demolition waste plant at Basai, such was is being thrown in the open.

Last year, on October 2, the state government declared Gurugram – a city with a population of 20 lakh – as one of the few 'open defecation free' cities in the country. While Gurugram authorities continue to actively promote this achievement, most of the residents are impressed by the claim.

Ever since the announcement was made, residents have taken to social media to lambast agencies of not knowing the ground situation. Numerous portable toilets have been built in the city, but they have proved to be insufficient for the large number of migrant population in the city.

"A major problem faced by women is the lack of public toilets. It is unfortunate that even though there are certain toilets built by residential and market societies in the city, no attention has been paid towards building women toilets. Moreover, many toilets that have been built are either locked or dysfuctional," said Rahul Kapoor, a city resident.