Jammu, Jan 2:
Advisor to Governor, Kewal Kumar Sharma, today chaired a meeting to review the Solid Waste Management (SWM) in the state and its projects under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) here at Civil Secretariat. The meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner, Housing & Urban Development Department (H&UDD), KB Aggarwal, Secretary in H&UDD, Anil Kumar Gupta, Commissioner, JMC, Pankaj Magotra, Commissioner, SMC, PeerzadaHafizullah, Director ULB Kashmir, Farooq Ahmed Rather, Director Finance, H&UDD, Shaheen Mohammad Ashraf, Director, Planning, H&UDD, M IshfaqPakchiwal, besides other senior functionaries of the concerned departments and consultation agencies. The Advisor said that solid waste management is an important component for sustainable development and needs special focus. Every department and functionaries associated with SWM shall put in a committed effort to achieve the desired results on the ground, he added. At the outset, Financial Commissioner, H&UDD, K B Aggarwal gave a brief overview to the Advisor regarding solid waste management across the state. The Advisor was briefed about the present status of ISWM projects of Jammu Division. It was given out that in Katra and Udhampur, the SWM project cost is Rs 4 crore and Rs 14.59 crore respectively and tenders have been allotted and DPRs are under preparation. The Advisor further had a detailed analysis of the bidding formats, capex costs, tipping fees and other aspects involved in the tendering process. He asked for making the tendering process more viable. He also enquired about the present strategy and future plan of action for effective solid waste management. While reviewing the present scenario of waste collection and disposal by Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), the Advisor was informed that door-to-door waste collection has increased to nearly 80 per cent with 112 hopper vehicles in service to collect waste. It was further informed that six NGOs have been empanelled for creating awareness on segregation of waste source in 15 wards of the city. SMC proposes to issue twin coloured dustbins to all households and 33 per cent MSW segregated at mechanical segregator and processed for composting and resource recovery, the meeting was told. Existing SWM flow at the landfill site, Achan was reviewed and short awareness video on segregation and solid waste dumping was also showcased during the meeting.
The meeting further had detailed deliberations on Solid Waste Management Rules, Environment Protection Act 1986 besides various directions and guidelines passed by competent courts on solid waste management. Segregation, composition and recycling solid wastes besides functioning of already existing solid waste management plants and advantages of plasma decomposition were also discussed during the meeting. It was informed that Leh has procured a machine based on plasma technology for solid waste decomposition which has been installed on a trial basis in December 2018.
On parking areas, the Advisor said that the Municipal Corporations shall have a detailed assessment of proposed sites for parking and underline the design challenges. Parking charges shall be reasonable to encourage more people to park their vehicles in the allotted parking areas, he added.
