Indore : The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) along with International Feedback Foundation (IFF) organised a discussion on ‘planning of cleanliness programme and sanitation development in Indore city’ at Nakshtra Garden on Wednesday.
Mayor Malini Gaud encouraged the efforts of the IMC and IFF, and said, “Indore has come from 149 to 50 and now stands at the 25th rank in India, it can surely come in top 10 with the success of Swacchh Bharat Abhiyaan.”
Talking about the first facility under the campaign, i.e. door-to-door garbage collection, she said that ward 71 was used an example and made into a smart ward.
“Under the smart ward, we have successfully provided door-to-door facility, GPS tracking of garbage and installed LED lights,” Gaud said. Next, they have taken up 16 wards in the project to convert them into smart wards. “We are floating tenders for the same and hope to complete all the 85 wards soon,” she added.
Further, she disclosed that under the cleanliness campaign, the Central Government is funding 50 per cent of total expenditure of building toilets, 30 per cent is funded by the State Government and 10 per cent by the IMC. “About the processing, we have started buying polythene from rag pickers and are selling to a construction plant in Neemuch,” she concluded.
Key speaker of the day CEO of IFF Ajay Sinha had an interactive session with the audience. He urged the citizens to understand that building toilets is not the responsibility of government. “It is the sole responsible of a person to dispose off his faeces, government has no responsibility and role to play in the same,” he said.
While most of the plans of the IFF are centred towards building toilets in villages, they are trying to come up with a plan for cities. “As of now, our city projects are handled in the same way as villages,” he said.
During the interactive session, he busted the reasons behind lack of sanitation facilities in the city. “It is not that people are not aware, it my request that please stop running cleanliness awareness campaign, everyone knows, it is just that they are not willing to change,” he said. Differentiating between awareness and transformation, he quoted various examples like drinking addiction.
He said, “There are three basic reasons which are used by people to cover lack of sanitation facilities: poverty, lack of place and lack of water.” However, none of these are justified considering it is a basic necessity like food that an individual earns for himself.
“The primary objective of swacch bharat abhiyaan is open defecation free country and solid waste management is a secondary objective,” he said.
He concluded saying that he plans to develop the city’s sanitation with the help of citizens and communities, not government.
IMC Commissioner Manish Singh quoted the needs of sanitation in the city. He said, “The target of building 22,000 toilets, out which we have renovated 5,000 toilets in slum areas, and build 1,000 new toilets.” Therefore, at least 17,000 more toilets need to build to meet the needs of the city. “With approval from Mayor Malini Gaud, IFF will be taking over the work of building toilets in the city,” he concluded.
