Ghaziabad banks on beautification drives, anti-plastic campaigns
GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has chalked out measures to tackle the last leg of the Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS 2020) survey which started on January 4 and will go on till the end of the month. The Ghaziabad city, during the first and second quarters, stood at 32nd and 30th positions in the results declared recently.
The January survey, which is the final phase of the SS 2020 competition, is crucial as it carries 92% weightage in the overall survey (total of 6,000 points). In the final phase, Swachhta teams are to survey ground realities and also take citizens’ feedback to make final assessments in ranking the city. Ghaziabad city in the 2019 survey had ranked 13th out of 425 urban local bodies which participated in the competition.
“The last round is crucial for the corporation and we have initiated a number of steps which would help us get a higher ranking. The survey began on January 4 and we have geared up for the last round. We are focusing on beautification of the city, with wall paintings being taken up in every residential ward. Murals have been painted on Metro pillars, flyovers, and prominent locations,” said Arun Kumar Mishra, the corporation’s accounts officer and nodal officer for the SS 2020.
The other feature which the officials have engaged residents with is the concept of ‘Bartan Bank’ where a stock of about 20,000 steel utensils of has been prepared in each of the five zones in the city.
“Through the concept of the Bartan Bank, anyone can use these utensils for functions and then return. The facility is available free of cost. The idea is to stop usage of disposable plastic items which increase garbage load and require more manpower for cleaning. We are also distributing 10 steel utensils to every vendor in the city and about 80% have stopped the usage of disposable items. Our drive against polythene has yielded good results and is being carried out consistently,” Mishra added. Apart from focusing on cleanliness, the corporation has installed air-dryers, disposable napkins and water harvesting measures etc., at each of the 152odd public toilets across the city in order to achieve the ‘ODF++’ status in the survey. The corporation has already applied for the ‘ODF++’ status.
“Out of a total generation of about 300 million littres per day (MLD) of treated water from sewage treatment plants, we are reusing about 32 MLD. A proposal is also being chalked out where industrial units will be supplied treated water for use at a price. It will be placed before the board,” Mishra added.
Besides these, the corporation has fixed all lightings and installed garbage bins and leaf composting pits at about 550 developed parks in the city, out of a total of 1,235 parks under the corporation’s jurisdiction.
In the previous SS survey, Ghaziabad city had secured 13th rank – a step up from its earlier rankings of 36 in 2018 and 351 in 2017. Last year, the city topped the list of the successful cities in Uttar Pradesh, wherein 64 cities had competed. In 2018, the city stood at second spot in the state.