Diwali celebrations left streets and residential lanes across Gurugram littered with firecracker wrappers, burnt debris and other festive waste on Monday, with residents complaining that irregular sweeping and garbage collection had compounded existing sanitation problems.
Savita Devi, a resident of Sector 46, said she woke up on Monday to find her lane covered with firecracker wrappers and burnt debris. Sector 46 is one of the main Huda sectors, but anyone entering the area after the celebrations would have found it difficult to believe that it is a planned residential sector,” she said. “The entire lane was littered with firecracker waste. almost every lane in the sector was covered with debris after Diwali While the frequency of sanitation workers visiting the area has improved in recent weeks.
Residents across several sectors said firecracker waste had added to piles of unattended garbage, while shortages of sanitation workers had delayed clean-up efforts.
Kundan Lal Sharma, general secretary of the Sector 21 residents’ welfare association (RWA), said residents had expected the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) to deploy additional sanitation workers after the festival. Sharma said residents had been complaining about manpower shortages for months, with only around 30% of the sector receiving regular cleaning. “We thought that after Diwali, the civic authorities will ensure the clean-up of roads and internal lanes, and might deploy additional sweeping teams for waste clearance. “People ensure that their homes are clean, but the roads and the city are left unattended. There is no accountability or strict monitoring.
But none of these arrangements were done,” he said. “Several stretches remain unattended, and with firecracker waste now scattered across the roads, the need for regular sweeping has become even more pressing,” he added. Rajesh Gera, RWA president of Surya Vihar, said sanitation services remained inadequate even before the festival, and the absence of workers after Diwali had made matters worse. Whenever there is a festival or a major event, sanitation is among the first civic services to take a hit,” he said.
