Proposal for third party audit of garbage management in MCD budget

Municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti said that the audit will be conducted by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad.

The audit of Delhi’s garbage management and the implementation of municipal solid waste (MSW) management rules will be carried out independently by a third party, according to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) annual budget proposals for 2024-25, presented by the municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti on Saturday.

Bharti said that the audit will be conducted by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Bharti said that the audit will be conducted by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad.

“The project will help us find shortcomings and loopholes in waste management and provide suggestions on increasing efficiency. We will focus on the complete removal of unauthorised waste dumping spots in the city and scientific disposal of waste with maximising the human resources,” the commissioner added.

A senior MCD official said that the ASCI is being appointed as the monitoring agency for waste management. “The audit will be carried out over three months and will cost ₹24,50,000. The scope of the audit includes five components — situation assessment of solid waste, reviewing existing contracts with agencies, assessment of garbage vulnerable points, capacity building, and creating a blueprint of a 100-day action plan and the delivery of this plan,” the official added.

The agency has already submitted the situational assessment report while the blueprint is awaited, the official said.

The decision for audit was taken based on directions from the National Green Tribunal and the solid waste monitoring committee. Delhi generates an estimated 11,328 tonne of waste every day which ends up in the three landfill sites, four waste-to-energy plants, and decentralised processing units.

MCD commissioner allocated the largest chunk of the budget (25.16%) for the sanitation sector with the civic body now targeting open defecation-free (ODF++ — where faecal sludge/septage and sewage is safely managed and treated) and three-star garbage-free city ratings. Bharti said the biomining of the three landfill sites has helped to clear 1,020,000 metric tonne of legacy waste till November 2023 and the complete clean-up of the landfills is expected by December 2024.

“We have started the process to set up a 3,600 tonne per day capacity Narela Bawana waste-to-energy plant. The capacity of the Okhla WTE plant is being increased from 1,950 to 2,950 TPD while the Tehkhand plant’s capacity will be increased from 2,000 to 3,000 TPD. These projects will lead to a complete halt in fresh waste reaching the landfill sites,” Bharti added.

Bharti also announced that MCD will be renting eight battery-operated vacuum cleaning machines for markets for the next three years.

“During the G20 Summit, we hired such machines for South-Ex and Karol Bagh and based on the good response, we are expanding the project,” he added.

He added that the pilot project for artificial intelligence-based monitoring of civic services will be implemented in three wards —Preet Vihar, East Patel Nagar and Kotla Mubarakpur.