With the 'Solid Waste Management Bye-Laws, 2018' for NCT of Delhi being notified on Monday, new 'user charges' have come into play for door-to-door waste collection.

Citizens, however, are miffed as they claim there is no daily garbage collection and large parts of Delhi still have no mechanism deployed by the MCDs for this purpose.

Residents and RWAs of posh colonies in east, south and west of the city employ household maids or rag pickers to take away unsegregated trash.

In the rest of the city - including unauthorised colonies, slums/ jhuggijhopdi clusters, villages, etc., garbage is dumped in heaps wherever available, or just about anywhere, including ponds and drains.

The issue has been taken up by MCD councillors themselves.

Recently, South MCD councillor from RK Puram, Tulsi Joshi, said, "In my area, people still don't know what time the garbage collection van arrives, what colour it is or what it looks like. Neither does it sound a horn or play the Swachhta Mission song so that people are alerted of its presence."

The problem is echoed by residents of other areas too.

Iti Sharan, who stays in a rented flat in Pandav Nagar, east Delhi, says, "My roommates and I cross the road over to the Mother Dairy-side to deposit our garbage every few days. Lesser conscientious people in the neighbourhood just drop their packets from the third and fourth floor balconies in the middle of the night, and they scatter all around."

Pradeep Khandelwal, chief engineer, east MCD, admitted his corporation is yet to implement 100 per cent door-to-door waste collection in the area under his jurisdiction.

"Regularised colonies such as Preet Vihar, Mayur Vihar, Vasundhara, etc., have a system in place, though citizens may not be aware. Soon, we will create a robust apparatus with one safai karmchari responsible for visiting every 300 plots or buildings with his van every morning and collect waste," he said.

"We will put up the contact number of the karmchari and his timings on our website," he added.