MC has fixed deadline of achieving door-to-door collection of segregated waste, its transportation in covered vehicles to processing and disposal facilities waste. (Express Photo)
Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has formulated a draft of the Solid Waste Management Policy which will be tabled before the UT Administration for notification on Tuesday.
This is a direct consequence of the Supreme Court order staying all construction activity in Chandigarh for not framing any solid waste management. The apex court has also fined Chandigarh Rs 3 lakh.
Corporation officials are learnt to have framed the draft policy urgently over the weekend. It specifies the time frame in which the Municipal Corporation aims to achieve implementation of different activities under the SWM Policy. According to the draft policy, the MC has fixed the deadline of achieving door-to-door collection of segregated waste and its transportation in covered vehicles to processing and disposal facilities waste by December 31, 2019.
Similarly, for enforcing waste generators to practice segregation of biodegradable, recyclable, combustible, sanitary, domestic hazardous and inert solid wastes at source also is to be achieved by December 31, 2019, as per the time frame given by the MC.
Saurabh Mishra, Additional Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, said a project of segregation of waste remained still born in Chandigarh because garbage collectors are not under the MC. “Residents say that they segregate waste but garbage collector mixes it while garbage collector says residents don’t give segregated waste. In Indore, it is the MC that collects the garbage and thus the accountability of the residents can be fixed. That is why it didn’t pick up,” said Mishra. “We spent Rs 2 crore on giving two coloured bins to residents and garbage collectors, got their rehris repaired but to no avail,” he added.
Implementation of ensuring separate storage, collection and transportation of demolition and construction waste is likely to be completed by March 31, 2019. The bio-remediation or capping of dump site has December 2020 as its deadline.
The policy further suggests that there will be an ICT-based monitoring mechanism. According to this, “ICT-enabled mechanism will be installed by which the urban local body monitors its efficiency of the collection and transportation system, regularity of staff and sustaining the transformation, cleanliness of vulnerable points.”
It also stated the strategy for creating awareness among people under the head, ‘Education strategy for sustained behaviour changes and public participation’.
The policy states, “This is very essential to cover the entire population as it is not possible to reach all the people through group education programmes. Mass education programmes will be planned. School children can be assigned a definite role as whistleblowers in their areas.”
Provisions for on-the-spot fine have been suggested. “To sustain the project and to create ownership among waste generators, the prescribed service charges for door-to-door collection of waste will be mandatorily collected from them. The prescribed spot fine will also be imposed on the violators,” it stated.
It was also specified that there will be integration of ragpickers and community-based organisations. To empower ragpickers, they will be integrated in solid waste management mainstream, the policy stated.
Under the SWM Policy, bulk waste generators will be made responsible for on-site waste management on their own as per the rules.