As part of continuing efforts to build the capacities of Urban Local Bodies in various implementation components of Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban, a National Workshop titled “Accelerating Implementation of Urban Missions” was held here later last week for two Missions of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, namely – Pradhan Mantri Avaas Yojana (Urban), and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), and was inaugurated by Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of state for Housing and Urban Affairs(I/C). 

 A guide Book for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) on Bulk Solid Waste Generator’s Compliance of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016”, and the online database for states and cities, both pertaining to SBM Urban was launched on the occasion. The guidebook lays out the roles and responsibilities of bulk waste generators and will handhold ULBs in implementing the SWM Rules, while the online database will henceforth capture data directly from states and cities online, regarding their progress on SBM components, thereby enhancing the robustness and transparency of Mission monitoring.

The session on Swachh Bharat Mission, attended by nearly 170 participants including Principal Secretary (Urban Development) of states, state Mission Directors for SBM, Municipal commissioners and other officials of cities with population of 5 lakh and above, and of nearby cities of NCR area, as well as representatives from Ministry partners, was chaired by Sh Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary and co-chaired by the National Mission – SBM (Urban), Shri Vinod Kumar Jindal.  The session was highlighted by the following major takeaways: 

 

o   In order to enthuse cities with a spirit of healthy competition, the concept of a star rating protocol for garbage free cities was introduced during the workshop. Given its potential as a developmental cum aspirational tool for cities to incrementally improve their overall cleanliness, while working towards a garbage-free status, this is expected to greatly enthuse the city administrators. The star rating protocol is different from the Swachh Survekshan ranking survey in that it will allow multiple cities to be awarded the same star rating, and is expected to be formally introduced by the Ministry in the next few weeks.

o   Given the focus on the issue of cleanliness of community and public toilets, there is a concerted drive to seek user feedback for CT/PTs through the Google toilet locator and Swachhata app. Hence, extensive discussions were held on the issues of uploading all community / public toilets in cities on Google maps under the Business listing category, integrating with Swachhata app, as well integrating all grievance-related and other applications for SBM across states and cities with the Ministry’s “Swachhata” app.

o   Various best practices were presented by cities and states, on topics covering Collection and transportation of MSW (from Pune), Source Segregation of Waste (from Chhattisgarh), Ensuring compliance to SWM Rules 2016 by Bulk Waste Generators (from Bengaluru), Financing options and models for SWM (from Haryana and Andhra Pradesh), Citizen engagement (from Indore), and engaging ‘swachhagrahis’ (from Trichy).

 

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RJ

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