Double delight for Mohali civic body

Kulwinder Sangha

Mohali, April 27

Even as the Mohali Municipal Corporation has been selected for the best practices in the field of “GIS-based mechanised city cleaning” by the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), the civic body has also been shortlisted for the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) Awards, 2015.

Saurabh Jain, Deputy Secretary, Swachh Bharat Mission, Government of India, stated in a letter sent to Mohali MC Commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta that “the city of Mohali has done a commendable work in the field of GIS-based mechanised city cleaning. You are, therefore, requested to conduct capacity-building programmes, which includes classroom learning, demonstration, site visits, etc., on the initiatives taken by your municipal corporation for the officials of other corporations so that other municipal city officials learn and replicate the work done. This will also provide an opportunity to the city to project their best practices at the national level”.

Jain also said in the letter that the MoUD was playing a facilitating role in identifying best practices carried out in the selected municipal corporations and ensuring that officials from other corporations undertook exposure visits to these selected urban local bodies for first-hand exposure to the best practices for replicating them in their respective cities.

Seven other corporations in the country have been selected for best practices carried out by them. While the Municipal Corporation, Surat, was selected for efficient management of solid waste, the Bangalore Municipal Corporation was selected for an overview of strategic solid waste management. The Mysore Municipal Corporation was selected for segregation of waste at all levels, the Pune Municipal Corporation for zero garbage ward mode and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation for radio frequency identification device technology for door-to-door garbage collection vehicles. The Ambikapur Municipal Corporation was selected for a solid and liquid resource management model and the Sholapur Municipal Corporation for biomethanation.

The Deputy Secretary has asked the Mohali MC Commissioner to nominate a nodal person, who would be assigned the work of conducting the training programme. The name of the person and other details have to be sent to the MoUD, along with the dates of the training programme. A report has also to be submitted after the completion of the programme.

Another letter from the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad, to the Mohali MC Commissioner stated: “Your nomination, “GIS-based mechanised city cleaning,” submitted for the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) Awards, 2015, is shortlisted for field validation”.

The letter said a team of experts from the ASCI would visit Mohali to conduct a spot study of the initiative for validation and field assessment. The corporation was asked to arrange supporting material, necessary documents, reports films, etc., relating to the initiative.