CM’s Award: Urban Local Bodies In Odisha Directed To Focus On Waste Management

Bhubaneswar: Chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra on Tuesday stressed on sustainable waste management by the urban local bodies (ULBs) to ensure clean and livable cities in the state.

Speaking at a meeting on sensitising the collectors and ULBs on Chief Minister’s Cleanest City Award through video-conferencing, Mohapatra said the award is an innovative initiative for creating healthy competition among the ULBs.

“Solid waste management through micro composting centres (MCCs) is a standardised end-to-end solution from ‘segregation at the source’ to the ‘door to door collection’, composting and disposal. It is a sustainable waste management technique, which while reducing the burdens of dumping on the land, also lessens the carbon footprints in the urban vicinity,” Mohapatra said.

He directed the ULBs to involve the members of the Mission Shakti and Transgender groups in operation and management of the MCCs. Besides, rag pickers can be roped in for material recovery facilities (MRFs) so that they could earn their living from it.  The ULBs were told to improve bus stands, parking places and open areas in their areas.

Outlining the minimum eligibility criteria for the ULBs to get entry for the award competition, Principal Secretary Housing & Urban Development G. Mathivathanan said city cleanliness parameters will be dynamic and would change from time to time with changing situation. The focus for current quarter of the year is on solid waste management and visible cleanliness.

Director, Municipal Administration Sangramjit Nayak informed that the ULBs should upload the data along five thematic areas like creation of infrastructure, service level performance, citizen satisfaction, operational efficiency, financial performance particularly composting and selling and institutional capacity.

The assessment would be done on the basis of information collected from different sources like Swachh Sahara portal, Ama Sahara mobile app, Mo Sarkar feedback and  directly filed observation by a professional third party agency.

Principal Secretary Mathivathanan said the award would be given each year on three categories of top two performers among 9 cities included under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) programme, top three performers among 44 municipalities and top three performers among 61 NACs.

Additional Secretary Kalayan Kumar Ratha and senior officers of the department were present.