Gurugram/Faridabad: For residents of Haryana's Bandhwari village on the Gurugram-Faridabad border, home to one of the largest landfill sites in the country, elections mean politicians visiting the garbage hill for "photo-ops" and making "mountains of promises".
The locals, meanwhile, continue to struggle with contaminated water; diseases, including difficulty breathing; loss of business, and much more.
Since its inception in 2010, the Bandhwari dumpsite has become a major waste repository in the region, receiving more than 2,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of mixed waste -- 1,400 TPD from Gurugram and 600 TPD from Faridabad. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of the waste generated by the two cities is processed.
"In the last few years, during summer and monsoon, it became increasingly difficult to even sit outside our homes. If the wind blows from the dumpsite to the village, one can't even breathe. The waste has also contaminated the water in the area. From the dumpsite, it seeps into valleys and abandoned mines and contaminates the groundwater. We can't even bathe in the water that comes from the village borewells," Sumit Rawat, a villager, told PTI.
"Everytime there is an election, politicians come, take photos and announce that the dump would be removed but they are just mountains of promises," he said.
For Dharmveer Prajapati, who owns a petrol pump on the Gurugram-Faridabad highway, the landfill poses another challenge.
"Trucks full of garbage come here every day and cause traffic chaos. My staff has to keep their faces covered all the time because the air around is so poisonous," he said.
The ordeal is the same for dhaba owners on the highway that rarely get customers, unlike such eateries on other routes.
"There is a foul smell, mosquitoes and dust are everywhere, so people do not prefer to make a stop here. The situation has worsened in the past few years… It wasn't this bad earlier," said dhaba owner Virender Tanwar.
The landfill is not just a challenge for the villagers but for residents of the swanky apartment complexes nearby.
"It is like paying crores to wake up to a foul smell every day. We keep hearing in the news that the garbage dump will be removed soon but nothing changes on the ground," said Deeptiman, an apartment owner nearby.
The issue finds mention at the top of both the BJP and the Congress' assembly poll manifestos.
The BJP's Rao Narbir Singh -- a former Haryana minister contesting the elections from Badshahpur in Gurugram district -- said the height of the landfill had been significantly reduced and the waste was being treated.
Badshahpur is the largest constituency in the state in terms of the number of voters.
"The waste is being treated and it has been significantly reduced. I agree the city is a civic mess but the Bandhwari landfill has been on the government's agenda and measures are being taken," he told PTI in an interview.
Singh blamed his party's coalition with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) between 2019 and 2024 -- a period when he was not in the government -- for the mess.
The BJP and the Ajay Singh Chautala-led JJP formed an alliance in October 2019 that ended in March this year. JJP leader Dushyant Singh Chautala was deputy chief minister in the alliance government.
"I blame the coalition for it (Gurugram's civic problems). We had a majority government from 2014 to 2019 and anyone could see the pace of development but things went downhill since 2019. It was our coalition with the JJP that is to be blamed," Singh said.
"The civic infrastructure department was with the JJP and they didn't do anything. The people are disappointed that despite the BJP being at the helm of affairs, no work was done," he added.
Singh held the public works department and the forest portfolios in the first term of the Manohar Lal Khattar government from 2014 to 2019. He was denied a ticket by the BJP in the 2019 assembly polls.
The Congress' Badshahpur candidate Vardhan Yadav -- making his electoral debut -- said the landfill had been ignored by the BJP despite being in power in the state for 10 years.
"The residents have begun to be diagnosed with cancer because of the challenges being posed by the landfill and unfortunately not enough has been done by the BJP government. Waste management in the city is a total mess," he said.
The Haryana government has submitted a plan before the National Green Tribunal, committing that the landfill site would be cleared of all legacy waste before December 31.
According to Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) Commissioner Narhari Singh Bangar, the landfill's height had been reduced from 50 metres to less than 23 metres in the past two years.
While the MCG assured the tribunal that it would stop dumping fresh waste at Bandhwari as part of the action plan, fresh waste continues to be added to the dump.
Gurugram district has four assembly constituencies -- Gurgaon, Pataudi, Badshahpur and Sohna -- with a total electorate of more than 15 lakh.
Assembly polls in Haryana will be held on October 5 and the results declared on October 8.
Assembly Elections 2024 | In the first assembly polls since the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi and the BJP face a rejuvenated and vindicated Opposition in the Haryana assembly polls. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir is voting after almost a decade and it remains to be seen how the abrogation of Article 370 has impacted the political landscape of the Valley. Track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.