Indore : While the country is busy cleaning surroundings under the Swachh Bharat campaign, Indore still stands among the 43 Critically Polluted Areas (CPA) of the country. And one of the main reasons behind this is the poor garbage management system.
It is evident from the fact that there are no garbage bins in 19 out of the 85 wards. Activists blame mismanagement of resources for rise in garbage menace.
“The Prime Minister has to run campaigns and worry about garbage! What are we waiting for, God to come down and manage garbage for us?” activist Kishore Kodwani questioned. He filed a petition in the Indore bench of MP High Court regarding the mismanagement of Solid Waste Management (SWM) in 2009. After 56 hearings, the HC instructed the IMC to collaborate with Kodwani and prepare an analysis assessment report of the city. However, when the IMC refused to act on it, Kodwani staged dharna outside the IMC office for 3 days until the IMC took action on it.
Garbage problem persists as the key problem areas that have not been addressed till date. According to Kodwani, city garbage system needs improvements in four functional areas.
Unavailability of garbage bins
“The Indian law prescribes civic body to place proper garbage bins at a distance of 500 meters,” Kodwani said. Therefore, there should be at least 1,400 bins in the city placed at a distance of 500 meters. However, there are barely 400 proper bins in the city according to Kodwani.
Further, IMC’s report on the same analysis reported installation of garbage bins at 800 spots out of the 1,400 identified spots. In an affidavit placed by IMC quoted there are no bins in 19 wards of the city and there are 1 to 5 bins in other 43 wards. The number of wards with 10 bins stands at a figure of 19. Interestingly, overall IMC admits having 491 garbage bins based on a statement by thepetitioner. After the statements, IMC has installed some new bins in various locations. However, in the time period of 7 years, the actions taken seem negligible. “You cannot ask people to throw garbage in bins if there are no bins available,” Kodwani added. Lack of command and control of sanitation workers
IMC should ideally employ 3,400 workers to collect the garbage of the city. However, the total number of registered employees with IMC for collecting garbage is 5,600. Yet garbage remains a critical problem for the city. Collector’s report underlined, “No monitoring is done over cleaning of the bins. No area wise record of garbage generated is maintained. 200 high garbage generating spots need cleaning of bins more than once a day.” The problem persists because of a lack of command and control by the authorities according to Kodwani.
Disposing garbage a major problem
Indore has been facing a problem of garbage disposal for a year. After the damage of processing plant at Devguradia in September 2014, no actions have been taken to dispose of solid waste according to the activist. This means that tons of garbage is piling up in the city every day. Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) disclosed the situation to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) after a notice was sent to the IMC regarding the growing garbage menace. MPPCB reported, “23,000 to 25,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) of garbage is dumped at the trenching ground every month. The processed garbage reported is 4,500 MT.”
After the amendment to the law in 1997, a contract for cleaning and transportation of garbage was outsourced. “There have been various contracts given but they fail to deliver the services,” Kodwani said. He explained that the problem is with the authorities. “IMC is not attending and checking up on the contractor,” he added. Lack of command on contractors like A2Z and sanitation workers is the main cause of continuous failures. “The point is, if I pay you for not working, why will you work?” Kodwani questioned.
