CHENNAI, Tamil Nadu: K N Nehru, Minister of Municipal Administration, Government of Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday, August 30, launched a mobile app, ‘TN urban e-sevai’ to strengthen grievance redressal mechanism and paying taxes. The minister also launched a monthly publication Ezhilmigu Nagaram.
During the inaugurating conference on formulating an action plan for solid waste management, Nehru said that the state government has launched several initiatives to achieve 100 per cent scientific disposal of solid waste in 21 municipal corporations, 138 municipalities and 490 panchayats in the state. He added further that with the formulation of the action plan, the state government is planning to achieve zero-waste status in cities by 2026.
Nehru also noted, “Door-to-door collection, segregation and processing of waste are the important aspects of solid waste management. Over 15,000 tonnes of waste is generated in urban areas of the State every day. About 55% of this waste is degradable.” He also mentioned that all the action plans should be formulated keeping in mind the conditions of cities in the year 2025, and by 2026, the urban areas in the state are expected to attain a three-star in the Zero Waste City rankings by the year 2026.
Nehru also revealed that the Tamil Nadu Government has planned to procure machines to improve waste collection in five cities. Apart from that, the state government will also launch programmes to do away with 73.1 lakh tonnes of legacy waste accumulated in the 72 urban local bodies. Nehru added that over 364 acres of land is getting polluted due to being used as dumping sites. Once the government do away with the legacy waste, these landfill sites could be used to make parks.