Gurgaon: Forty-seven of Haryana’s 87 urban local bodies (54%) continue to face shortages in manpower, machinery or both. A Haryana govt assessment has exposed a crippling shortage of sanitation machinery and vehicles.For the city, the numbers reveal a mismatch between manpower and infrastructure, including vehicles, according to the report prepared by chief minister’s good governance associates (CMGGA), based on the state’s solid waste management portal data till July 17.The CMGGA report classifies Haryana’s 87 ULBs into three categories — 22 operating under the old request for proposal (RFP) model, 29 under the cluster RFP model and 36 under the new RFP model. While the new RFP contracts specify the required manpower and machinery, the old and cluster RFP contracts do not.Within the old RFP category, the city records the highest machinery shortfall in the state, with only 303 vehicles and machines available against a requirement of 627, leaving a deficit of 324 vehicles, or 51.7% of the required fleet. Despite this, the corporation has almost met its manpower requirement, with 1,206 sanitation workers against a benchmark of 1,212.Among the 36 ULBs operating under the New RFP model, Manesar has only 25 vehicles and machines against a contractual requirement of 213, leaving a shortfall of 188, or nearly 88% of the required sanitation fleet as per the report.For these 51 ULBs, CMGGA assessed gaps by comparing actual deployment with Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation’s (CPHEEO) scientific norms.Faridabad, also an old RFP corporation, has the second-largest machinery deficit in the category, with only 27 vehicles against a requirement of 270, leaving a shortfall of 243.On the city’s shortfall, MCG additional commissioner Ravinder Yadav told TOI, “This shortfall will be addressed as soon as our long-term contract of the doorstep waste collection is finalised. It is currently at the technical evaluation stage and the city will soon have the required fleet to address this shortfall.”The CMGGA findings are significant because they come from an internal govt monitoring exercise rather than an external audit. They indicate that despite repeated investments and the state’s push for improved urban sanitation, several major municipal corporations continue to function without the basic resources required for effective solid waste management.Among the remaining old RFP civic bodies, Yamunanagar (174 vehicles), Bahadurgarh under Jhajjar (131) and Palwal (47) have the next largest machinery gaps, indicating that vehicle shortages extend beyond the city, though none approach the scale seen in the city and Faridabad.
