Indore: 21 villages under solid waste management plan

The cleanliness drive being initiated by the Union government under the flagship Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan has included 21 villages in Indore district where solid waste management projects will be implemented.

The cleanliness drive being initiated by the Union government under the flagship Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan has included 21 villages in Indore district where solid waste management projects will be implemented.

A letter dated October 13, 2014, from the additional chief secretary panchayat and rural development, Aruna Sharma, to Indore collector with copies to the public health engineering, agriculture, rural engineering service and janpad panchayat, names the villages and also asks the collector to send detailed proposal within seven days.

Sources said under the project, among other things, every household in the village will be provided with toilets and also for proper disposal of animal waste and garbage segregation and disposal. The Centre is going to bear 75 per cent and the state 25 per cent of the total cost.

At present, toilets are being constructed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA), but with talks of MNREGA being scrapped or shaped into a new avatar, it is not clear who will bankroll the project.

Another major problem is disposal of cattle dung. There is no common area to collect cattle dung and most farmers dispose it in their own way. But under the project there will be a common disposal system. There is of course, garbage generated by the humans.

It is likely that the villagers will have to pay monthly fees for collection and disposal of garbage and cattle waste, but the quantum is not clear and might differ from village to village.