Garbage collection not our duty: RWAs

CHANDIGARH: The 73 resident welfare associations (RWAs) that come under Federation Of Sector Welfare Associations (Foswac) have refused to manage collection and segregation of garbage in their sectors.

Municipal corporation commissioner K K Yadav held a meeting with RWAs in which Foswac general secretary J S Gogia mooted a proposal on Sunday to be allowed to manage collection and segregation of garbage at their own in their respective areas. Considering this, MC commissioner proposed that those RWA’s which agree to the proposal should sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the authorities.

Gogia said that under the MOU, the RWAs will fix the charges of garbage collection considering the house size and look after other related requirements on its own. During meeting, majority of the RWAs opposed this proposal saying that it is not their job to undertake the responsibility, but the MC’s.

Foswac spokesperson Pankaj Gupta said the authorities should first clarify what infrastructure will be provided in case RWAs manage the garbage collection.

President of RWA-MHC Col Gursewak Singh said that RWAs have no manpower and infrastructure to be able to carry out the responsibility. Another representative from Sector 36 said that there are various categories of houses in each sector and it is not possible for the RWAs to fix the garbage collection rates for all of them.

Gogia proposed the responsibility of garbage collection should be allocated to RWAs just like that of maintenance of city parks. Opposing this proposal, president of the MSC Duplex of Manimajra K L Aggarwal said that if the authorities want they can take back the parks which the RWAs were given for maintenance.