New Delhi: After making the nation open defecation free (ODF), the Central government has embarked on ‘garbage free India’ campaign as the next journey of ‘swacchata’ under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0, said Central housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep S Puri at the inaugural show of ‘Swachh Shehar Samvad’ cum tech exhibition in New Delhi on Thursday.
He added that the second iteration of the mission (SBM-U) has been launched with an overall outlay of nearly 2.5 times of the first mission. “The increased budget is an affirmation of the confidence placed upon the government by the people of lndia. Continuing with the ethos of SBM (U), the overarching principle towards this next journey of Swachhata is based on the philosophy of “waste to wealth”, and adopts the principles of circular economy as its core tenets,” said Puri.
Referring to the SBM success in achieving the goal of India making ODF, the minister said such a large-scale transformation had never been imagined before. “Despite a poor performance on sanitation till then, India achieved the target of ODF in the next five years because the mission evolved to become a ‘Jan Andolan’ instead of a typical sarkari programme,” he added.
The four-day Swachh Shehar Samvad and Tech Exhibition inaugurated today is a capacity building initiative of the SBM-U 2.0 to equip states and cities with an understanding of all recent developments in waste management. It comprises high quality technical and administrative discussions specially curated around topics related to management of municipal solid waste and liquid waste to enable states and cities to deliberate on strategies, best practices, and challenges in their journey towards Garbage Free status.
Tech exhibition showcases best practices of waste mgmt
The tech exhibition showcasing best-in-class models in waste management from across the country is also a part of the Samvad. Around 35 technology providers are demonstrating cutting edge technology in waste management. Working models are on display on various aspects of solid waste management/sanitation such as IT and GIS based applications, used water management, packaging options and 3Rs(Reduce-Recycle-Reuse), processing of municipal solid waste, mobile and portable units, construction and demolition waste and remediation measures. There are also thematic experiential exhibitions on mission initiatives inclusive of garbage free cities, aspirational toilets, used water management etc.
Waste processing capacities of ULBs reached to 73%
The minister claimed the waste processing capacities of urban local bodies (ULBs) have increased from a mere 18% in 2014 to 73% at present. “We are now accelerating implementation to reach 100% saturation at the earliest under ‘Lakshya Zero Dumpsite Challenge’. All legacy dumpsites containing 16 crore metric tonnes of waste, and taking up 15,000 acres of prime land, will be remediated within the mission period,” said Puri, adding that action plans for over 1,000 legacy dumpsites—including those in Delhi—containing 12.8 crore metric tonnes waste have been approved by MoHUA, with total project cost of more than ₹8000 crore, of which the Centre is contributing almost ₹3,000 crore.
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During the event, the Minister highlighted the key actions and initiatives under the Swachh Bharat Mission. He mentioned about setting up of material recovery Facilities (MRFs) in every city for ensuring further sorting, processing or recycling of segregated dry waste and setting up of processing/upcycling facilities for construction & demolition (C&D) waste.
