Panchkula MC councillors, officials to go on study tour to Indore, Bhopal

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 7

After its ranking slipped to 99th in the Swachh Survekshan 2021, the Panchkula Municipal Corporation has decided to send its councillors and officials to Indore and Bhopal to study their ways of solid waste management as both cities in Madhya Pradesh have successfully attained top spots in the Central Government’s annual cleanliness survey for the past few years.

‘Learn and emulate’

Councillors and MC officials should learn how these cities have successfully managed to secure top positions in the Swachh Survekshan year after year, so that the same can be implemented in Panchkula and our ranking gets better from the next year. — Gian Chand Gupta, Haryana speaker & Panchkula MLA

Indore was adjudged the cleanest city in the latest cleanliness survey report for the fifth year in a row, while Bhopal secured seventh position.

At a workshop organised by the civic body on solid waste management at the PWD Rest House in Sector 1, Haryana Speaker and local MLA Gian Chand Gupta mooted the idea so that councillors and officials can study the “good practices of waste management being followed in the cleanest cities”.

“Councillors and MC officials should learn how these cities have successfully managed to secure top positions in the Swachh Survekshan year after year, so that the same can be implemented in Panchkula and our ranking gets better from the next year,” Gupta told Chandigarh Tribune over the phone.

The initiative of cleanliness should begin from every house, he added while seeking cooperation from locals.

MC Commissioner Dharamvir Singh said they had been contemplating the suggestion forwarded by the Speaker and would finalise it soon. “With a new action plan, I can assure that we will improve our ranking in the cleanliness survey next year,” he said.

Meanwhile, the civic body has urged all 20 councillors to further aware citizens in their respective areas on proper disposal of solid waste and plastic to make Panchkula a clean and green city.

The event on the solid waste management also saw the participation of representatives of residents’ welfare associations (RWAs).

In the Swachh Survekshan 2021 report released last month by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Panchkula slipped to 99th rank in the category of one to 10 lakh population. The city had attained 81st rank last year.

After witnessing an improvement for three straight years, the city’s cleanliness rankings have been on the downslide for the past two years. From a ranking of 211 in 2017, the city rose to the 142nd rank in 2018 and further advanced to the 71st position the following year.

Local residents and Opposition councillors have blamed inefficient door-to-door garbage collection and the absence of a solid waste management plant at the Jhuriwala dumping ground for the city’s fall in the annual Swachh rankings. Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, on the other hand, has assured action on these issues. 

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.