Plaints & garbage piles mount, doorstep collection in Manesar to resume today

Gurgaon: Door-to-door waste collection will resume in Manesar from Sunday after the private garbage collection agency decided to restart operations following mounting complaints from residents.

The services remained suspended since Thursday after the agency halted operations amid an escalating dispute with MCM over inspections, payment procedures and alleged harassment of staff.

“We have decided to resume the services of doorstep waste collection from Sunday, since we don’t want the residents to suffer. It is peak summer. Our fight is not with the residents,” said Gaurav Joshi, business head of waste pickup agency Pooja Consulation.

MCM commissioner Pradeep Singh on Friday said payments to the contractor would be released strictly based on RFID and GPS data generated through the solid waste management (SWM) portal, in line with govt norms and tender conditions.

The issue was discussed during a meeting attended by councillors, Mayor Inderjeet Kaur Yadav, officials and representatives of the waste management company on Friday.

According to MCM officials, the agency is responsible for collecting waste from over 1.1 lakh households. Sanitation workers have to scan RFID tags outside each house, and garbage vehicles are tracked via GPS. Any mismatch between GPS and RFID data results in penalties for the contractor.

The dispute escalated after the agency accused the mayor’s husband of misconduct during an inspection on Wednesday evening. Agency staff alleged their employees were harassed and had their phones snatched. Representatives said drivers and sanitation workers would not return to work without guarantees of safety and dignity.

The controversy also triggered a political row inside the civic body. During Friday’s meeting, councillors questioned the alleged involvement of the mayor’s husband in inspection activities and sought an independent probe into the matter.

Despite the standoff, the agency has agreed to resume waste collection from Sunday due to public inconvenience. MCM officials will inspect the vehicles on the same day and submit a report for further action.