Loudspeaker to patrols: Here’s how residents of Delhi’s Okhla are battling trash at their doorstep

The speaker has not been installed by the MCD or any government agency, nor is the message from the authorities. It’s been set up by a group of residents, frustrated by the daily dumping of garbage on a large vacant plot in front of their homes. They have even resorted to standing guard to stop people from throwing trash.

At 10.45 am on Friday, Salman, one of the men on watch, dashes out of his grocery shop near the ‘dumping ground’ after spotting a man on a bike pause briefly, fling a paper bag, and speed off before he could intervene.

“We’ve submitted multiple complaints, both verbal and written, to the MCD and DDA,” he says. “This is a 1,200 sq ft plot, but in the past 30 years, I’ve never seen it free of garbage. It’s hard to even walk past it.”

This plot is now higher than the adjacent road due to layers of garbage — from broken furniture, torn mattresses, kitchen waste, to construction debris — that has accumulated over the past 20 years. Flies swarm around the fresh heaps as residents toss polythene out of their kitchen windows and passersby stop their vehicles to dump bags of waste — especially when the ‘guards’ are not on duty.

View of a huge swathe of garbage strewn at the Yamuna floodplains at Okhla in New Delhi on Monday (Express/Tashi Tobgyal)

Residents claim this land is owned by the DDA, as a board indicating ownership was erected there until a few years ago.

A few houses away, Saleem Khan, in his 50s, who has lived in the area for 20 years, says the sight of piled-up garbage has remained unchanged for as long as he can remember.

“After work, I keep watch near the plot — usually around 10.30 pm, and again from 5 to 8.30 in the morning,” he says. “When we confront people dumping trash, they shrug it off, saying one bag won’t make a difference.”

Residents, he adds, have long demanded that a park be built on the plot. “We’ve even tried tying ropes around the area to stop the dumping,” he says, “but the police stop us, claiming it’s DDA land.”

A resident of the nearby Chinar Apartments says MCD garbage collection vehicles used to arrive every three days, but have now stopped altogether. “The MCD doesn’t consider this area part of its jurisdiction.”

Across the plot, Sunil Kumar, a watchman at a nearby apartment, cradling his nine-month-old daughter, expresses concern over the rising cases of dengue and malaria. Pointing to a puddle where mosquito larvae breed, he says, “People don’t understand the risk. They park their vehicles here, and every year, two or three catch fire when the dried garbage ignites.”

But this isn’t the only area in Okhla that has been turned into a dumping ground.

A few kilometers from Batla Chowk, Huma, a resident of Lane No. 22 in Zakir Nagar, often visits her parents in another neighborhood.

“My father is a heart patient, and the doctor has advised him to walk every day. But how can he, when the lane is filled with garbage and construction debris?” she says angrily.

Huma also questions the silence of authorities and local leaders in response to her complaints over the past two years. “Our slippers will wear out from going back and forth to their offices, but no one will listen,” she adds.

The lane where she lives is dark even in the afternoon. Waste from factories operating in the basements of nearby houses and vegetable scraps have piled up due to irregular garbage collection.

From Lane 7 to Lane 21 is yet another dumping ground.

A small child crawls on the floor of his father’s makeshift stall selling pan masala, situated right opposite the heap. “This used to be a road people took to Moti Masjid,” says the father. “Now it’s just a dumping ground. Nobody listens to us — they only show up during elections.”

Okhla MLA, AAP’s Amanatullah Khan, says the MCD has stopped paying heed to his complaints. “There are 128 sanitation workers in the Zakir Nagar ward, but none of them are seen doing their job. The entire Okhla area has turned into a dumping ground.”

Zakir Nagar ward councillor Naziya Danish of the Congress says that after a new tender for waste management was issued, the corporation provided four garbage collection vehicles per ward, but without any helpers. “How can garbage be collected without staff?” she asks, adding that these issues have persisted for the past two-and-a-half years since the previous concessionaire’s contract expired.

She says she will contact the landowner beside Chinar Apartments to initiate plantation efforts there.

When contacted, Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh says the new concessionaire began work on August 1. “They will require at least 4-5 days to maintain sanitation in the Central zone, after which everything will be normal. This tender is only for six months. But in the coming three months, a new tender will be issued for seven years. Permissions have been granted to roll out fresh tenders for a longer period.”

The DDA did not respond to the queries from The Indian Express.