Gurgaon: The new MCG commissioner hit the ground running on the first day of joining office.
After an introduction meeting with officials of the civic body, Mukesh Kumar Ahuja visited the Bandhwari landfill site and later inspected an under-construction creek near Shiv Nadar School in DLF Phase-1.
He also instructed the IT wing officials to develop a portal for interacting with the public during the pandemic.
Ahuja told TOI that sanitation, effective waste disposal and public grievance redress will be his priorities, besides the overall development of the city.
“I had a meeting with MCG officials to get a bird’s-eye view of the city’s civic issues.
My foremost priority will be sanitation, effective garbage disposal and simultaneously the resolution of public grievances.
Through a portal, I would take up grievances of the residents,” he said.
At the Bandhwari landfill site, the new commissioner held a brief meeting with Ecogreen representatives and MCG officials to understand the reasons for the garbage pile-up.
The main problem, the officials told the MCG boss, is that there are no takers for the refuse derived fuel (RDF) and compost produced after the processing of waste at the landfill site.
MCG chief engineer Thakur Lal Sharma told the commissioner that Indore took its processed waste and spread it over 250 acres of land they had and developed a park over it.
However, he said that the limitation for Gurgaon is that no such land is available.
He informed Ahuja that the MCG had identified an alternative landfill site, but could not proceed with the same due to the objections raised there.
On the issue, Anil Mehta, the consultant, said that a 90-acre land has been identified, which falls under the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad.
“There are two aspects which the MCG should focus on — legacy waste treatment and setting up of the waste-to-energy plant,” said the MCG commissioner during the meeting.
The officials also informed Ahuja that they have 17 trommels, however, only two are processing waste due to space constraints.
The MCG boss then said that he would meet the Ecogreen and MCG officials again to deliberate upon the issue.
To review the monsoon preparedness, the MCG commissioner has also scheduled a meeting of the drainage plan committee for Wednesday.
At the introductory meeting, the officials told the MCG commissioner about the working of their departments and discussed property tax, sanitation, sewerage system, C&D waste management and door-to-door waste collection.