Swachh Bharat records belie ground reality

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 18

While waste segregation at source and processing remained a non-starter in the city, the figures provided to the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) by the local Municipal Corporation (MC) show that it has achieved over 90 per cent success in these.

In a surprise to many, a recent report of the Centre for Science and Environment on solid waste management released by the SBM showed 92.3 per cent waste segregation at source and 95 per cent of waste being processed. This is the data till January this year.

According to the report, 100 per cent waste segregation at source has been implemented in 24 of the 26 wards in the city. The report states that against 479 metric tonnes (MT) of waste produced in the city in a day, 455 MT is processed daily. Interestingly, the MC stands second with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in waste segregation. Dadra and Nagar Haveli tops the chart with 100 per cent segregation. These figures are provided by the respective urban local bodies.

On the contrary, the MC in its court cases had itself mentioned that the city produces about 470 MT of waste daily, but the processing plant processes only 120 MT of it. Over this issue, the corporation had recently taken over the processing plant from Jaypee Group.

Also, waste segregation has remained unsuccessful as neither waste collectors nor people are segregating dry and wet waste. Collectors had been up in arms against this move. The civic body claims it has implemented waste segregation in some UT villages.

“It is surprising that such data has been furnished to the SBM, the nodal agency for conducting Swachh Survekshan for ranking all urban local bodies (cities),” said Vinod Vashisht, convener, City Forum of Residents Welfare Organisations.

“It is totally wrong that waste segregation has reached the level of 100 per cent in the city. In our sector, it is nil,” said JP Yadav, president, Sector 37 RWA.

Medical Officer of Health Dr Amritpal Singh Warring said, “These figures have been misunderstood. In the waste segregation aspect, we mean we have started it in 24 wards. In the processing category, we calculated the total waste processed at the plant and biomining at the dumping ground each day. Even other states/UTs have given figures on this pattern.”