PMC to borrow a leaf from Indore’s cleanliness playbook
Following tour of Indore, municipal commissioner Rajendra Bhosale and PMC staff have decided to borrow a leaf from Indore’s cleanliness and garbage collection practices
PUNE: Following their tour of Indore city in the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP), municipal commissioner Rajendra Bhosale and employees of the solid waste management department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have decided to borrow a leaf from Indore’s cleanliness and garbage collection practices.
Bhosale said, “The demography of Indore and Pune is different but Indore has many good practices. There is greater participation from citizens. Even employees work hard to keep Indore city clean. On a pilot basis, the PMC will implement these good practices in the Kasba Peth assembly constituency. If successful, the model will be replicated across Pune city.”
“Indore has less encroachments compared to Pune. We need to initiate a special drive against encroachments, mainly hawkers. In the last few years, the number of hawkers has increased. We need to form ward-wise teams to take action against hawkers,” Bhosale said.
An official of the Indore municipality on condition of anonymity said, “We have increased the citizens’ participation and even enforced the law. The penalty collected daily for garbage mismanagement is more than ₹3 lakh. If any citizen is found throwing garbage in the open, we impose a fine. Our intention is not to generate revenue or increase the civic income but to enforce cleanliness among citizens.”
The tour of Indore city was organised by Kasba Peth MLA Hemant Rasane in collaboration with the MP government as a learning exercise especially for PMC employees. Municipal commissioner Bhosale, PMC employees and representatives of some of the Ganesh Mandals visited Indore city, which for the past many years has maintained number one position at the national level in the Swachch Sarvekshan (Cleanliness Survey). Whereas Pune ranks tenth at the national level in this survey.
Rasane said, “Many PMC employees were part of this tour. It will definitely instill confidence in them that if Indore can do it, so can Pune. I hope that they will share what they have learned with their colleagues in the PMC and implement cleanliness in Kasba Peth in the coming days.”