MCD polls: Garbage piles up near polling booths

The "garbage issue came up in an unexpected manner during the MCD polls. Ironically, while political parties have been promising to resolve the garbage menace in the city one found that that there were a lack of dustbins at most polling booths. As a result, huge piles of plastic bottles, glasses and disposable lunch boxes were to be seen everywhere with no one around to clean up the mess.

The problem was made worse by the fact that polling officials seemed to have contributed to the mess. Ashok Chawla, a shopkeeper at the DDA market, which is located near the polling booth in Paschim Vihar said, "People on election duty have been throwing water bottles outside the market street. These are people who should be more responsible."

Speaking about garbage and cleanliness issue in the Capital he added, "The state charges tax revenue from markets, but neither do we have clean washrooms nor any single dustbin here."

This lack of attention to cleanliness had had Delhiites up in arms. Twenty two year-old Jasleen Kaur, a student at the Delhi University, said that the problem has only worsened in the Capital.

"Cleanliness is a big problem almost everywhere in Delhi and is only getting worse. In Janak Puri, we have garbage dumps which raise a stink. We need dustbins on the roads but so far no one has done that."

So far, several promises have been made by different MCD party candidates as to who to rid Delhi of the garbage menace and end landfills, but so far nobody has an answer as to how they plan to achieve the same. While Congress claimed of making Delhi landfill free, AAP has boasted that it will shut them down completely by 2019.

It isn't just the garbage issue it's the issue of recycling as well. Despite the Solid Waste Management (SWM) 2016 rule, which mandates segregating and recycling the waste in three different categories, no different dustbins are anywhere to be seen. Different coloured bins for recycling waste which can be seen in other cities, is not there in the Capital.

"There have been times where I have walked a long distance only looking for a bin," says Abha Choudhary, a Delhi College student. "I mostly keep the wrappers in my bag and throw them once I reach home, but what would you do with the wet waste? Dustbins are nowhere to be seen in this city," she adds.

Meanwhile, reacting to complaints about the mess Election Commission (EC) officials said they would call a sweeper to clean up the litter they had created near the booths. However, till late afternoon it lay there, and kept growing in size.