Jharkhand gearing up for Swachh Survekshan 2019

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JHARKHAND: The annual Swachh Survekshan 2019, the pan-India sanitation survey of Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry is scheduled from January 4, 2019, in Jharkhand. State urban municipal bodies are gearing up for the survey.

Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Dhanbad and Chas (Bokaro) municipal corporations are looking forward to improving their rankings this time. In 2018, Chas, Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad were placed 19, 21, 30 and 53, respectively. Ranking depends largely on how effectively each manages its waste collection, segregation and recycling.

Vinod Kumar Jindal, Joint secretary Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, explaining the procedures of 2019 swachh survey said, urban bodies would be marked on 5,000 points this time, not on 4,000 points as it was earlier in 2018. “Data will be collected from four broad sources, service level progress, direct observation, citizen feedback and certification, each with 1,250 marks. Solid waste management comes under service level progress”.

Sandeep Kumar, Ranchi Municipal Corporation city manager admitted that Essel Infra, an outsourced agency initiated doorstep waste collection in 34 of 53 wards, but segregation and recycling have not yet started.

Krishna Kumar, special officer of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) said that there are delays in getting their waste-to-energy recycling unit ready at the proposed site in Khairbani. He added that it’s the biggest drawback and a reason for not been ranked in the top 10. He informed that the doorstep trash collection had started but not so much their segregation.

Without doorstep trash collection and segregation, Dhanbad is a bigger mess. Vijay Kumar, Dhanbad Municipal Corporation city manager (sanitation) said that they are hurrying up. “We recently issued a tender for taking garbage from main roads to landfill sites. We procured over 200 rickshaw carts fitted with bins for doorstep trash collection,” he said. But work on the Rs 276 crore waste recycling project has not yet started, he admitted.