MC to launch ‘litter-free city’ drive from November 1

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 25

The Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar (MCJ) is all set to launch the “Litter-free city” drive from November 1.

Confirming this, Mayor Sunil Jyoti said elaborate arrangements had been made to lift garbage from the 71 garbage dumps in the city.

Also, area councillors and sanitary inspectors had been asked to identify the garbage points in their areas.

“We have recently received machinery worth Rs 3.71 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) from the Union Government which will be put to use in all wards. We are targeting to clean four to five wards in a day. The machinery will be distributed equally in all wards and each of these will be made litter-free in a few days time,” said Jyoti.

He urged the city residents to support the drive without which the civic body would not be able to achieve its mission. “Though we would make a ward completely litter-free one time, to maintain it like that, the support of area residents was a must,” said Jyoti.

Though the MC has received machinery from the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), a nodal agency for SBM, the civic body is expecting another Rs 9 crore from Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC).

“We will soon device route plans in the city for tippers to lift garbage from the city along with their set schedule,” said Jyoti.

425 tonnes of garbage, no way to process it

Even though the city is generating 425 tonnes of garbage daily through its various commercial and residential properties, not even an iota of it is getting processed by the Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar (MCJ).

After the scrapping of the solid waste plant project from Jamsher village due to the prolonged protest by area residents , the civic body to yet to devise any means to process the garbage generated every day in the city.

This has not only put the health of city residents in danger but is also all set to dip the city ranking in the Swachh Bharat Survey to be conducted soon by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).

While the civic body is all set to buy sanitation machinery worth Rs 7.5 crore to clean and lift the garbage, there is neither any place to dump it nor any means to process it from waste to energy or compost.

Civic body now plans to reduce garbage

With soaring population of over 15 lakh people and a lone dump at Wariana collapsing after over 60 years of use, the city needs a sustainable solution to deal with the accumulation of thousands of tonnes of waste.

With absolutely no way found to “reuse” or “recycle” the solid waste, the MCJ has urged the city residents to “reduce” the solid waste generated in the city.

Municipal Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khehra said, “The solid waste management is presently the biggest challenge in India and managing it was not possible without the support of the public. Since there is practically no option to reuse or recycle waste in the country, we have planned to take support of the general public till we find a way to process it.”

He said the civic body had planned to approach resident welfare associations, big corporate houses, NGOs and educational institutes in the city to seek their support, both in terms of reducing solid waste generation in their areas and sharing their existing garbage lifting infrastructure with the civic body.