E-Paper
Improving Swachh ranking: Tough road ahead for Patiala MC
MC has failed to ensure complete ban on single-use plastic and is struggling with garbage collection, but underground bins and public toilets might help improve ranking
After staggering through the first two quarters of the Swachh Survekshan (SS) League 2020, it seems like a the road ahead continues to be tough for the Patiala municipal corporation (MC) to improve its ranking in the annual cleanliness survey scheduled to commence from January 4 and conclude on January 31.
In results of the first two quarters of the SS League 2020 — from April to September 2019 — as declared by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Tuesday, the Patiala MC scored 1,439.37 points. In the first quarter (April to June), Patiala was ranked 199 nationally with 613.12 points, and in the second quarter (July to September), it improved the ranking and bagged 153rd rank with 826.25 points.
However, the calculations for the third quarter (Octorber to December) are still on underwent and are to be completed before start of the annual survey, which is starting from January 4.
As per the Union ministry of housing and urban development, the performance of cities in SS League 2020 is crucial for their annual ranking as 25% weightage of the quarterly assessments is to be added in the annual figures.
In 2019, the city had ranked 72nd of total 4,237 urban local bodies surveyed across country. This ranking was a jump of 111 positions as Patiala was ranked 183rd in 2018. In 2017, Patiala was among the dirtiest cities in India as it had bagged 411th rank.
Lagging behind in plastic ban
The ban on single-use plastic is one of the main components of the annual cleanliness survey. However, the Patiala civic body and the district administration have both failed to ensure a blanket ban on use of plastic in the past one year.
One of the officials, pleading anonymity, said that this is one grey area where the Patiala MC may lose some important points.
“Despite multiple campaigns and drives, the entities concerned have failed to stop manufacturing and use of single-use plastic.
“The amount of plastic being used can be gauged from the fact that of total 230 tonne garbage collected on daily basis in Patiala, 80 tonne is plastic and polythene waste,” an official said.
Besides this, failure of Patiala civic body to streamline door-to-door collection of garbage is likely to cost the civic body in terms of ranking in the final survey.
Door-to-door garbage collection was commenced last year, but the project was shelved after the MC’s General House passed a resolution to scrap it. This was following failure of the company hired to execute the plan in its totality.
Stronghold areas
Amandeep Sekhon, coordinator of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, said that there are many stronghold areas of the MC, which will help it to improve the ranking this year.
He said since the last survey, the municipal corporation has come up with six material recovery facility centres, having third-level segregation for dry waste management.
These centres are presently located at Jhill village, Focal Point, Sirhind road, Bishan Nagar, Rajbaha road and new vendors market.
“Moreover we have come up with 21 public toilets, which will help the municipal corporation to calculate the ODF++ category, while underground twin bins have been installed at 29 locations to avoid garbage heaps in city,” he said.
Sekhon added that the compactors have been installed at the main garbage dumping and collections points in the city.
