Swachh survey due in Jan, Jalandhar civic body yet to set up waste plant
JALANDHAR : Even after facing a setback in the Centre-led Swachh Survekshan Survey 2017, carried out in January this year, the Jalandhar municipal corporation (MC) has failed to bring in a solid treatment plant in the city.
This is despite the fact that Jalandhar is facing problem in terms of waste management.
Initiated by the ministry of housing and urban affairs, the Swachh Survekshan Survey 2017 was carried out for ranking 500 cities across India on the basis of cleanliness. Waste treatment plant was an important component of this.
With only two months left for the Survey of 2018, the civic body here has failed to do any work regarding the solid waste treatment model, to be shown to the Quality Council of India (QCI) team that will carry out the survey.
Earlier this year, MC had planned to set up a bio-methanation plant in all wards to treating biodegradable waste.
The MC was considering setting up of bio-mining plant to treat garbage in Wariana, during a House meeting. An MC team had visited Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu in July, to study waste management model adopted by them.
In its last meeting, held in September, the House had passed a proposal to set up a biomining plant in Wariana dump site and bio-methanation plant for all wards. Not even a single plan proposed by the health officials has seen light of the day.
Also, MC is yet to take final call on waste compost plant in Wariana. It had given the land on a 30-year lease agreement to Punjab Grow More Fertilisers Pvt Ltd. Under the agreement, the plant had to process 350 tonne garbage daily. But the machine is not working from past many years.
In last four years, the municipal corporation had spent crores under the solid waste management programme, but has failed to do anything.
Jalandhar produces around 480 tonne waste daily. Last year, MC had started a sweeping machine project for ₹30 crore, for five years. It had purchased sanitation equipment and machinery worth ₹3.72 crore but failed to perform well in the survey.
Due to the deadlock between mayor Sunil Jyoti and Congress councilors, many projects got delayed.
The civic body’s medical officer Dr Shri Kishan Sharma said they could not start the project due to delay in house meeting. But the bio-mining and biomethanation work is under process.
“The city will fail in the survey again due to the stubbornness of Sunil Jyoti,” said opposition leader Jagdish Raja.