Buoyed by Swachh awards, MAUD Department to make ULBs litter-free

HYDERABAD: Determined to maintain the tempo that brought 26 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) Swachh Survekshan awards, the Telangana Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Department has asked all municipal corporations and municipalities, barring the GHMC, to operationalise segregated waste collection in commercial areas and turn them into litter-free zones.

In SS-2022, as many as 26 ULBs bagged awards, leaving Telangana just behind Maharashtra in terms of the total number of awards achieved.To maintain the tempo, the MAUD Department has issued instructions to all municipal commissioners to ensure strict compliance for even better ranking in SS-2023 as well as achieving GFC 1 and 3 star ratings.

The ULBs have been told to identify and list all commercial areas and map the stretches and to prepare a list of commercial waste generators. The ULBs should declare the identified commercial areas as litter-free zones duly displaying the notification on boards every 500 metres in the commercial areas. The ULBs should also hold sensitisation meetings with owners of commercial establishments and conduct awareness programmes in commercial areas on segregation of waste, the department said.

All shops and commercial establishments must practise 100 per cent source segregation in a three-colour bin system (wet-green, dry-blue and domestic hazardous-red) of 60 litres and above capacity as per requirement. The ULBs should place litter bins at a distance of 50 metres in commercial areas, gauge the volume of waste generated and arrange the required number of dedicated vehicles to clear it.

The ULBs should deploy a dedicated team – one person for average road width of 60 feet for every 500 metres – to sweep the area twice a day and collect the waste.ULBs shall deploy two persons per vehicle for collection of waste from commercial areas and develop route maps duly indicating the number of workers and vehicles allotted. All commercial waste generators have to be intimated about the timings for collection of waste and user charges collected from them.

It may be mentioned here that the new Telangana Municipalities Act-2019 lays emphasis on sanitation and also mandates door-to-door garbage collection, including source segregation, scientific treatment and disposal of waste.