MC Patiala on spree to restore Pristine glory of Patiala City-Punamdeep Kaur
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Municipal Corporation Patiala has launched an aggressive drive to make Patiala City one of the cleanest cities in the country by augmenting the physical infrastructure and provision of best civic amenities across the City on one hand and restoring its pristine glory on the other.
Under the leadership of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh there has been appreciable augmentation in the physical infrastructure under various schemes along with deployment of new waste management techniques to make the city cleaner and greener. This has led Patiala to attain 2nd rank in Punjab, in the latest edition of Swachh Bharat Rankings issued by Government of India. The City has featured in the top 100 clean cities of India, as it was placed 86th in the entire country. Patiala also bettered its score from previous Swachh Sarvekshan from 3054 to 3467 points.
Divulging the details, Punamdeep Kaur, Commissioner MCP said that Municipal Corporation Patiala has 535 Compost Pits which were deployed for processing of wet waste collected from all across the City. With coming up of these pits, the wet waste, which earlier used to rot and stench in open, is now getting transformed into manure. This has not only led to revenue generation for MCP, but also have been a big step in the realization of the concept of “Waste to Wealth.”
Similarly, for the management of dry waste, 6 MRFs (Material Recovery Facilities) have been set up in different nooks and corners of the City. These MRFs house an assortment of chambers to keep homogenous items like glass items, metal parts, cardboard, plastic articles etc. These items find their way to professional recycling agencies, thereby giving a practical dimension to the slogan of “Reuse, Recycle and Reduce”.
Similarly, the best Public and Community Toilets in the state – with state-of-the-art accessories and design, have been built in Patiala and 84 such toilets, being run on “No-Usage Charges” basis, are more than enough for a City of the population size of Patiala.
Earlier, there were around 40 Garbage Vulnerable Points (locations where people tend to dump their garbage in substantially huge volumes). In 2019, the MCP started building underground bins – the first of their sort in the entire state of Punjab. It was a novel concept that made garbage finds its way in the deeper recesses of ground, rather than being littered in open. With 85 underground bins, the GVP count of the City has been reduced to 5.
One of the most ambitious projects of MCP is the “Bio-remediation Plant” set up at Sanauri Adda, Patiala. For the last 25 years, the City’s entire garbage is being dumped at the said Site, resulting in coming up of a series of huge vertical piles that not only act as an eye sore, but also a breeding ground of diseases and health hazards. The 2.5 lakh tonnes garbage dump, which is around 25 years old, is now being bio-remediated. The project has already been started, and in first phase Windows have been carved out from the dump waste.
It is expected that the project, in a period of one and half years, will completely wipe off the said Dump, which will perhaps be the first-of-its-sort development in context of major Cities of Punjab. In order to promote segregation of waste into dry and wet lots at public places, 250 twin bins have been placed across the length and breadth of the City that helps collection of sundry waste, generated in public places by individuals and shopkeepers, in a segregated manner.
The Officers of the Corporation are carrying out regular IEC activities, making people aware about the SWM Rules 2016, with special focus on segregation of waste. By making aware citizens, the Corporation aims to make its undertakings more inclusive and participatory in nature. Expressing optimism on the undertakings of the Corporation, Punamdeep Kaur IAS, Commissioner MCP stated, “The Corporation has embarked upon a number of new initiatives and projects, which will fructify in coming few months. I earnestly believe that in coming days Patiala will scale higher heights in context of cleanliness, aesthetical living spaces and hygienic surroundings.”
September,3,2020
