Gurugram, Nov. 18 -- The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has submitted a Rs.744-crore proposal to the Haryana government for sanitation and waste management, outlining a five-year district-wide plan to strengthen cleanliness systems. The proposal, submitted on November 14, details zone-wise allocations and identifies major gaps in manpower and infrastructure. According to the document, around Rs.382.59 crore has been earmarked for Zones 1 and 2, and Rs.361.45 crore for Zones 3 and 4. The budget includes costs for both mechanised and manual sweeping. The proposal emphasises expanding resources, recommending the procurement of 39 new cleaning machines while phasing out 16 older ones. It also flags a significant manpower shortage: MCG currently has 2,521 sanitation workers, while an estimated 6,500 are required. A ward councillor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the corporation plans to hire 1,500 more workers to partially bridge the gap. The move follows a November 11 meeting between ward councillors and Mayor Raj Rani Malhotra, where councillors raised concerns about persistent waste management lapses, overstretched workers, and inadequate sanitation in several wards. Explaining the basis of budget allocation, Sunder Sheoran, executive engineer at MCG, said tenders are issued according to specific ward and zone requirements. "For example, if areas like Old Gurugram already have proper drainage and water supply, there is no need to invest additional funds there. The budget is allocated according to the number of ongoing and upcoming projects across the district. It is not allocated ward-wise," he said. Official spending data shows that MCG spent Rs.151 crore on sanitation and waste management between April 1 and October 31 of this fiscal year. MCG chief accounts officer Vijay Kumar Singla said nearly Rs.66 crore was spent on door-to-door waste collection, Rs.28 crore on maintenance, water supply and drainage, Rs.16 crore on vehicle hiring, Rs.26 crore on waste management, Rs.5 crore on machinery, and another Rs.5 crore on controlling stray cattle and monkeys. Despite these expenditures, earlier HT reports noted that several parts of the city continue to grapple with garbage accumulation on roads, illegal dumping on vacant plots, and irregular cleaning schedules. Residents from sectors 10, 23A, 40, 45, 46, 56, 57, 68, 72, 81 and 90 have repeatedly complained about inadequate manpower in their neighbourhoods, with some RWAs reporting a reduction in deployed sanitation workers. The ward councillor quoted above who disclosed the plan to hire 1,500 additional workers said concerns remain over the implementation timeline. "While the increase in manpower is welcome, it remains to be seen how long it will take and how these workers will be allocated across the city's 36 wards," he said. Residents say the impacts of poor sanitation are increasingly visible. Shweta Gupta, a resident of Sector 37, said, "The continuous dumping of waste has made this area intolerable. They send workers for a week, and then it's back to the same situation." In response, Malhotra said MCG is taking steps to improve this. "We will be increasing manpower, and sanitation work will be ramped up significantly."...