Mumbai: BMC’s waste management plan still stuck

The Shiv-Sena led cash-rich BMC is now having second thoughts about spending Rs 13 crore a year on experts to plan and implement the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s celebrated Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The Shiv-Sena led cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now having second thoughts about spending Rs 13 crore a year on experts to plan and implement the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s celebrated Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

In the light of the momentum generated by Modi’s country-wide cleanliness campaign, the civic body had announced an array of initiatives under a five-year plan to rejuvenate the deteriorating waste management services in the city.

However, this plan is likely to hit a roadblock as the officials from the solid waste management department (SWM) say that the proposal for appointing experts to plan and run the awareness campaigns in the city has been stuck between departments for more than six months now.

They have gone on to say that it is unlikely it will be approved.

On the other hand, following the Prime Minister’s footsteps, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis earlier in the week announced Swachh Maharashtra Abhiyan, which focuses on construction of toilets and solid waste management.

However, the same administration is now seemingly reluctant to spend Rs13 crore from the Rs 2,231.95-crore budget outlay for SWM department. This amount was set aside to plan awareness campaigns for municipal staff and citizens.

The BMC, which is facing a huge challenge to educate people to follow segregation of waste, had then decided to plan a long-term strategy under the campaign to include 650 advance locality managements (ALMs) in the city and appoint experts to plan and execute the various campaigns.

“Our main aim is to reduce the garbage, which reaches the dumping ground in the city. So we had planned to appoint experts to train our staff to plan and execute awareness campaigns, segregation promotion and also ideas like zero-garbage model,” said a senior civic official.

But the proposal is stuck as it is termed expensive,” the official added.

This is not the first BJP government-led project which has been stalled or opposed by the Sena in the civic body.

Another Modi project, which is facing the resistance from the ruling Sena in the civic body is the light installation of LED lights on Marine Drive.