Ludhiana: City residents questioned the municipal corporation’s new “Mission Clean Punjab” awareness campaign, questioning how the civic body can mandate a strict four-bin waste segregation rule when it has failed to provide even basic two-colour dustbins at public places.While the MC uses social media to urge the public to segregate waste into four separate bins and stop roadside dumping, residents argue that the city lacks the foundational infrastructure to support the policy. They are demanding that the civic body ensure 100% daily door-to-door garbage collection before implementing advanced solid waste management rules.Locals also expressed skepticism regarding the efficiency of the current system, fearing that meticulously segregated household waste will simply be mixed together again during transit.“We are ready to keep four dustbins at home and will also ensure garbage should be kept in segregated form but can corporation officials ensure garbage will not be mixed again,” said Manoj Sharma, a resident of Civil City, who labelled the current campaign as a cosmetic measure that ignores ground realities.Further complicating the drive, residents noted that the city’s informal, private network of garbage collectors operates completely outside public control. “The garbage collectors are private and residents have no control on their working. She said they are forced to pay garbage collection charges as per the demand of garbage collectors,” said Seema Chauhan, a resident of Ghumar Mandi.Meanwhile, civic body officials maintain that public cooperation is vital for the city’s cleanliness. A senior official shared that following local bodies minister Harjot Singh Bains’ recent visit, the administration is working on directives to install new dustbins, purchase shrub cutters, beautify traffic junctions, paint road corners, and identify new sites for static garbage compactors.
