Swachhta Survekshan ’23 to be an acid test for civic body

Ludhiana: The Swachhta Survekshan 2023 is going to prove a hard nut to crack for the civic body, as like previous years, they could not gain momentum in solid waste management. Though processing of legacy waste with the help of bioremediation process has started, but the processing of fresh waste has not taken off yet. The officials are still at planning stage to settle the fresh waste.
Meanwhile one sewage treatment plant at Tajpur Road is almost complete, but other STPs will start processing after June 2023. All these things matter the most in Survekshan results. Last year, the city ranking had come down from 39th to 40th, just because of these shortcomings.

In the first week of January, the teams from Central government may come for checking the ground reality in city as already in some of the cities, the Survekshan has already started. The officials claimed they have started creating awareness among the masses about this Survekshan because public participation also carries marks.
The teams can go anywhere and ask anything to people about sanitation. The senior officials, too, admit the fact that lots of improvement is required in sanitation condition of the city.
The sources revealed that in documents, the officials claimed that they have achieved at least 70 to 80 percent source segregation but in reality, it is very low. In many of the areas, door to door garbage lifting does not take place regularly and in such cases, it is difficult to keep the garbage in segregated form.
Moreover, garbage collectors do not have proper rehdis to carry garbage in segregated form. The dumps, too, do not have facility to keep the dry and wet waste in segregated form. One of the health officials, requesting anonymity, said, “As of now we are paying more attention towards the awareness among the public as solid waste management carries maximum marks and if public will not support us, we cannot handle anything.” He said they are also waiting for the teams to come and conduct the checking.
ODF++ certification away from reach
The civic body could not avail the ODF++ certification till date because the sewage treatment plants are not upgraded yet.
One 225 MLD plant will get functional soon, but unless all the plants will not start functioning, the authorities cannot ask for this ranking. The overall ranking of Ludhiana MC suffers just because of this shortcoming.