E-Paper
Residents criticise Greater Noida’s non-participation in Swachhta survey; say could have learnt from rating
The Greater Noida city has once again stayed away from participating in the Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS 2020), like it has done in past several years. According to Greater Noida authority officials, the reason for this is that is they did not “get any instructions from the Uttar Pradesh government or the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs” to participate in the competition. Meanwhile, residents and experts said that participating in the survey could have given the city an opportunity to improve sanitation in the city, and a study could have exposed “gaps” in waste management.
“As of now, we feel that there is a huge scope of improve on the sanitation front in all areas of Greater Noida, be it industrial, residential, commercial or institutional. From door-to-door garbage collection to effective waste treatment, the city needs a roadmap so that it can become cleaner and more beautiful. Participating in the SS 2020 would have highlighted the positive aspects of the city and identified gaps, which do exist,” said Alok Singh, founding member of Greater Noida’s Active Citizen Group and former vice-president of sector Alpha I residents’ welfare association.
Greater Noida was established in 1992 and is spread across 38,000 hectares, which was acquired from 124 villages. The authority has developed 26.83% of these as green areas with an aim to maintain a healthy environment for residents, said officials. Residential area is spread over 25.81% of the land. Industrial areas have been developed on 31.46% of the area while the remaining land is used for institutional, commercial and other purposes, said officials.
Greater Noida as of now has a population of eight lakh. It is expected that the city will be home to at least 25 lakh people in the next 10 years, according to an estimate of the authority. However, the city is yet to start door-to-door garbage collection, segregation and treatment of the same at landfills, as per provisions of the Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules - 2016. It has got environmental clearances to operate at a landfill at a 126 acres plot located in Astoli. However, the authority is yet to begin operations there despite the fact that it was ready for operations in 2016.
“Greater Noida has a population of eight lakh and it should start addressing the issue of waste management without any delay because once the population starts increasing, challenges related to sanitation will increase simultaneously. Had Greater Noida participated in the Swachhta survey actively, it would have helped the city improve upon many aspects – from composting to treatment of e-waste,” said environmental expert and advocate Gaurav Bansal.
The Greater Noida authority’s chief executive officer Narendra Bhooshan said they did not participate in the Swachhta survey because as was no instruction in this regard.
“We did not participate in this survey because we did not get any instruction from the state or Central government. If we would have got instructions then we would have participated. We are taking adequate steps to improve sanitation services in the city. We have just about formulated policies related to waste management and also intensified action against bulk-waste-generators to improve sanitation services,” said Bhooshan.
In the Swachhta survey, each participating city has to feed data related to waste management being done there, after which Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs verifies the data and also takes feedback from citizens to rank cities on the basis of waste management performance.