Chandigarh, May 1 -- The failure to clear Dadumajra legacy waste became a topic of heated discussion during the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) General House meeting on Thursday with councillors across parties questioning the delays. After officials were questioned as to what action was taken against the four agencies hired for the purpose, given that multiple deadlines to fully clear legacy waste have been missed over the last two years, mayor Saurabh Joshi sternly stated that the companies will be blacklisted if the fresh deadline of May 31 is not achieved. "I don't know why we go soft on private agencies who are only missing deadlines. all four agencies that are working for bioremediation of legacy waste will be blacklisted if the work is not completed by May 31," he said. Decades of inadequate garbage processing left Chandigarh grappling with three mountains of legacy waste. The first mountain, comprising 5 lakh MT, was fully cleared by December 2022 at a cost of Rs.33 crore. The second mountain, of 8 lakh MT, was originally slated for clearance by July 2023 under a Rs.68-crore Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 project. The deadline was extended five times - to December 2023, March 2024, June 2024, October 2024 and then to December 2024. The target was finally achieved in February 2025. While the second mountain was being remediated, a third heap of 2.4 lakh MT emerged due to continuous dumping of unsegregated and unprocessed daily waste. Its deadline was first July 2025, then September 2025, and later November 2025. It is finally expected to be cleared by May 31. The city, which shows high overall cleanliness, has slipped on Swachh rankings multiple times due to the legacy landfill. The MC has also received warnings from the Punjab and Haryana high court and also the National Green Tribunal. AAP councillor and former mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor said the MC has spent Rs.200 crore on the project so far, but the waste mountain still remains. "Indore completed the task to clear the waste in a far lesser amount. What are we doing here?" he asked. AAP councillors Hardeep Singh and Yogesh Dhingra alleged that there was no record of 96 MT of unprocessed garbage at Dadumajra. Leader of Opposition Hardeep Singh demanded that a detailed account of the entire matter be brought to the House. He alleged that false affidavits are being submitted to the court. Immediately after the House meeting, Dayal Krishna, chairman of the dumping ground joint action committee, said he does not understand "the game" that the MC is playing. He claimed that from the same place where the deadline for removal of garbage is being given, unprocessed garbage is being collected day and night and transported to another place. "This garbage is being dumped at the place from where 5 lakh MT of garbage was previously removed at a cost of Rs.34 crore. Now a pile of garbage has been created at the same place." Advocate Amit Sharma, who has filed a petition in the HC, said, "The MC's sixth assurance to the HC was to process all waste by April 30, plus or minus two days. They have missed that too. Earlier, a fire broke out at this dump. Today, videos show them just shifting garbage from A to B, not processing it. Extensions were granted for processing, not transferring. So what extension are they even seeking? With the next hearing on May 8, we will seek appropriate directions from the court." New horticulture plant among 41 agendas cleared at House meet >P2...