MCD to focus on minimising roadside littering and segregation at source in 2023
Friday, 30 December 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Though the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has claimed that several initiatives have been taken to improve sanitation facilities in the city, waste management and segregation of garbage at source continued to remain the civic body’s biggest challenges in 2022. Many locals even claim that problems like roadside littering and the usage of banned plastic items became severe this year.
According to some social activists, the dwindling management of private agencies selected by MCD to manage sanitation facilities is the main cause of such issues. The MCD and its agencies so far have failed to ensure the execution of the simple basic rule of segregation of garbage at source before disposal under Solid Waste Management (SWM) 2016 rules. As per many, the MCD does not put any effort at ground level to ensure locals follow rules. However, MCD has claimed to take several new initiatives to improve sanitation facilities in the city.
One of the biggest steps taken by the corporation this year has been replacing Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (REEL) with a new Bhopal based agency for the operation of solid waste management and recycling plant in Sheeshambada. MCD would soon select an agency to replace REEL’s sister company Chennai MSW Private Limited that was managing door to door garbage collection in 69 wards. The working quality of REEL was always questioned by many since it started operation in the city about five years ago. In the past two years, issues like roadside littering, irregularities in door to door garbage collection service and accumulation of hundreds of metric tonnes of refuse derived fuel (RDF) in the waste management plan got worse but nothing concrete was being done to tackle these issues. After the MCD denied any raise in REEL’s payment and gave an ultimatum to improve its work quality along with other conditions, REEL decided to get relieved of its duties under the corporation. It also affected the sanitation conditions making garbage accumulation a common sight in many areas. According to chief municipal health officer Dr Avinash Khanna, the MCD has ensured that the newly appointed company provides quality work as per the agreement and its effect will be visible in a few months. He said that MCD was focussed on raising awareness among locals this year regarding sanitation. He said that the corporation conducted several anti-plastic campaigns and about 8,000 inspections of commercial establishments this year. It even connected thousands of children with the campaign to make them aware as well as to their parents through them. MCD collected over 1,000 kilogrammes of banned plastic items and collected a revenue of over Rs 10 lakh as part of the anti-plastic campaign. He said that MCD also recently got a cash reward of Rs 20 lakh under Atal Nirmal Nagar Puraskar (ANNP) by chief minister Pushkar for securing a position in the top 100 cleanest cities of the country in Swachchh Survekshan 2022. “Roadside littering and segregation at source for proper waste management are two major challenges for us and we will adopt new strategies and initiatives in 2023 to ensure the situation improves across the city,” said Khanna.
