GURGAON: As the date to award the fresh sanitation contract draws near, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) is thinking out-of-the-box for fresh ideas. After having a bitter experience with sanitation firms with poor track record, the municipality is now contemplating to award the contract to resident welfare associations (RWA) in order to have more accountability and people’s participation.

To begin with, the MCG is likely to rope in one or two RWAs or voluntary organizations and ask them to carry out sanitation work in their respective area. The MCG will pay them the minimum wages. This is the first time that MCG is planning to involve RWAs directly. The authorities say that if the pilot initiative yields the desired results, it can be implemented in other parts of the city as well.

The MCG has been having major difficulties in getting the right set of people to do the sanitation work in the city and just last month it had to blacklist two firms for not doing shoddy job and corrupt practices. The new work orders are expected to be out by the end of this month.

“Sanitation work involves constant monitoring and we don’t have enough resources to carryout monitoring work. That’s why we are looking at the possibility of involving RWAs for minimum wages. We feel the residents can monitor the work regularly as they interact with the sanitation workers on a daily basis. Every RWA has a stake in keeping its neighbourhood clean. There will definitely be more accountability. Many residents show interest in social service. We want to engage them to make Gurgaon cleaner,” said P C Meena, MCG commissioner.

“A few weeks ago, some residents from Garhi Harsaru came to meet me and complained that no sanitation workers come to their area. They said that they have a gram sudhar samiti and expressed interest in handling the sanitation work in their area themselves. If other voluntary organizations come forward, we can involve them also and handover the task of sanitation to them,” he added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Municipal-Corporation-of-Gurgaon-mulls-resident-welfare-associations-role-in-sanitation-work/articleshow/23011626.cms