Lack of ODF status, waste management did city in

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 24

Patiala has failed to grab a spot in the top 100 among 4,203 cities surveyed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for cleanliness. 

While 183rd position in the Swachh Survekshan-2018 has been appreciated by officials concerned in comparison to the 411th position in 2017, there is apparently a lot of work to be done in the city in this regard.

The city has not achieved what it could due to lack of a solid waste management plant and open defecation-free (ODF) status. The survey has come to an end, but the issues pertaining to openly strewn garbage and choked sewerages remain unsolved.

The city has scored 2,152 points out of 4,000, but remained 5th in the state after Bathinda, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Ludhiana and Ferozpur. Residents say Patiala, known as the royal city, and being the Chief Minister’s city, it should do much better on the cleanliness scale.

Ganesh Sethi, a resident of Model Town, said: “Patiala does not have open defecation-free (ODF) status. Officials, in February this year, decided to provide public toilets after the Municipal Corporation (MC) could not provide individual household latrines everywhere. We need clean toilets to ensure cleanliness in the city.”

Gurneet, a school student, said: “Even after carrying out drives and informing people, garbage on roadsides can be spotted everywhere. If we want to make the city better, we should ensure cleanliness all the time and not only during the survey. They should clean the drains and small water bodies regularly.”

Explaining the civic body activities, MC Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira said: “The city could have scored better with an open defecation-free status. This time, we will focus on providing mobile and other toilets wherever required to make the city open defecation-free (ODF). The onus for a solid waste management plant lies on the government and we cannot do much about it.” 

He added: “We made a pilot project of waste segregation and compost preparation pits in the city. The MC is going to pass projects to make compost pits by segregating the household waste. We are planning to make 200 to 250 compost pits in the city wherever required.”