State to join hands with pvt players for training on garbage cleaning

MP | 10 October 2019 | Kolkata: The state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has chalked out an elaborate plan along with private organisations to conduct garbage cleaning operation. The cleaning operation will be conducted by the civic bodies while the private agencies will give advice and train up the workers of the Conservancy department.

At first, work will begin in 85 municipalities and by the middle of 2020 another 40 municipalities will be brought under the purview of the plan. Six agencies have been selected to assist the municipalities. Biodegradable and non-degradable waste will be segregated at source. Manure will be produced from the solid waste while plastic and glass will be recycled and used for day-to-day purpose.

The matter has been discussed at a meeting where representatives of Kolkata, Howrah and Chandannagore Municipal Corporations were present along with their counterpart in the 125 municipalities. Senior officials of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department, including the principal secretary Subrata Gupta, were present at the meeting. A booklet titled Preliminary Lessons in Solid Waste management has been published to give an idea of the scheme.

To implement the scheme, the area of civic bodies along with the population and its density will be taken into consideration. Big civic bodies like the Chandannagore Municipal Corporation will work individually while clusters comprising smaller municipalities will be set up.

In many municipalities, the existing trenching grounds have been exhausted and it is difficult to get new areas to set up the fresh ones. Consequently, garbage is being offloaded in open space causing inconvenience to the residents. The councillors, conservancy workers and the rag pickers will be given training. Awareness drives will be conducted so that the residents can segregate the garbage at source.