Sanitation should be top priority, Haryana CM tells officials

Gurugram June 27

Battling a sanitation exigency, Gurugram will get four new officials for a month to speed up the ongoing cleaning under the Solid Waste Environment Exigency Programme (SWEEP) process. Following the orders of Haryana Chief Secretary (IFS) S Narayan, HCS Vatsal Vashisht, Samwartak Singh Khangwal and Additional Director of Urban Local Bodies YS Gupta have been ‘internally adjusted’ in the city for around a month to help in speeding up the waste clearance and implement SWEEP with efficiency.

CM Nayab Singh Saini, who was in the city for a grievance redressal committee meeting today, asked district officials to ensure sanitation is their top priority and ordered a review of the ongoing initiatives within a week.

Saini flagged off 50 new electric vehicles for door-to-door garbage collection. With these new vehicles, the total number has now exceeded 500. Apart from this, 19 HCS officers have been assigned to monitor the cleanliness system in all wards of the corporation area. Under SWEEP, the cleanliness system and dumping of garbage waste are being monitored.

Along with it, secondary garbage collection points, such as Khandsa and Vatika Chowk, have been converted to zero garbage points, ensuring regular garbage collection. Electric vehicles flagged off by the CM will not only speed up the garbage collection from households, but will also help in protecting the environment.

He also inaugurated cloth bag vending machines under the campaign for single-use plastic and polythene bag-free Gurugram. These machines will be installed at various public places in the city soon. People will have access to cloth bags for Rs 10, encouraging them to avoid single-use plastics. The CM also inaugurated sanitary pad vending machines, which will help in the disposal of used pads and also provide new ones.

According to MCG Commissioner Dr Narhari Singh Banger, the sanitation initiatives were on in full swing and the number of garbage vulnerable points was being reduced daily.

“Things have started falling in order now. The number of garbage vulnerable points is reducing and lifting has started from secondary collection points as well. The ambit of door-to-door collection is increasing and we are getting more and more vehicles as part of our fleet to pick up garbage from homes. The teams are at work 24 X7 and change is visible,” said Banger.