Civic body readies action plan to clean Delhi before Games

For the two-week period when the Commonwealth Games are on, the Capital will be “spotless and sparkling”.
This is the promise by Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s, which has decided to enforce a slew of measures to ensure a clean Delhi during Games.

Delhi Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney said the Corporation will launch a special cleanliness drive from July 1. The civic agency will also set up a “central control room” that will be functional from mid-September till the Games.

To be operational round-the-clock, the control room will have an interactive voice response system to register sanitation and cleanliness related complaints, which will be attended to “immediately”.

To enforce its “detailed plan of action” the Corporation has decided to deploy “adequate” specially trained staff across all zones. A proposal regarding this has been drafted by the MCD and was recently presented before Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta.

The plan of action includes installing waste collection bins at all Games venues in areas under its jurisdiction, deploying mechanical sweepers and removing construction waste from across the Capital. The plan will also ensure that during the Games there is no unattended and uncollected waste and that no municipal solid-waste waste is found in any area, including the unauthorised colonies.

As per the plan, while the Games Organising Committee will be responsible for the primary waste collection and the MCD will collect the waste from the site where OC disposes it. The MCD will also undertake sweeping inside and around the venue.

The MCD will also install ‘Deep Collection System’ bins, which will be partially above and partially below the ground level. This will ensure the waste is “not approachable” for rag-pickers and stray animals. The waste from these bins will be collected mechanically through cranes. It has also been decided to install 68 Deep Collection System bins at 20 locations in city zone and nine locations in Sadar-Paharganj zone.

The Corporation has also come up with a novel remedy to ensure the safai karmcharis do their work properly. In order to “develop a sense of duty, responsibility amongst safai karmcharis, it has been decided to make them wear aprons and caps during their duty hours till the Games,” said a source in the Ministry of Urban Development-Delhi.

About their plans during the mega sporting event, a senior MCD official said it would be “decided upon when the time arrives”.

“We want to keep the city clean at all times. However, we are even yet to begin work on the current plan and the plan of action after October will be decided when the right time comes,” he said.

Pay conversion charges at special MCD counters
The central zone of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has set up 24 special counters to assist residents in payment of conversion and parking charges.

June 30 is the deadline for the payment and the camps, set up on Tuesday, will function till the end of the month.

The central zone has also deployed its trained staff to assist people in calculating and depositing due conversion charges for mixed land use. The zone has already collected Rs 275 crore.

Traders who do not pay the conversion charge for mixed land use, as per the Masterplan 2021 guidelines, will have to face penal action, the corporation has said. Their properties may also be sealed.

The MCD had collected around Rs 811 crore as conversion charges from across all 12 zones till May.

The central zone also demolished seven unauthorised constructions in Sangam Vihar, NDSE-I and Tughlakabad Extension on Wednesday.