Stink in state’s swachch dream

RAJKOT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachch Bharat campaign needs a more vigorous implementation in his own home state that he ruled for 14 years.
A report of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has revealed how mountains of garbage are piling up in most big cities and towns and making them look ugly. The data collected by the pollution watchdog shows that Gujarat processes just 1,354 metric tonne of the total 9,227 metric tonne or just 14% of municipal solid waste generated daily.The rest just keeps piling up.
In fact, states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh fare better than Gujarat in processing solid waste. The data is mentioned in the national plan for municipal solid waste prepared by CPCB following directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that had recently castigated all states for poor MSW management.
CPCB was asked to submit a plan within two weeks in February and post it on their website so that other state pollution control boards and governments can consider it.
In fact, CPCB’s comments on availability of data also reveal how serious the states are about tackling solid waste problem.
“Presently, no systematic and authentic data on MSW generation at national level and subsequently at state, district and at city or town level are available,” the report states.
Based on the information collected by CPCB from time to time, the reported and estimated waste generation in the country is 1,43,449 tonne per day out of which just 32,871 tonne per day is processed.
Noting that cities and towns are littered with garbage and give an ugly look, CPCB has said that only important locations are maintained, leaving many other places chocking with uncollected waste. “The collected waste is disposed on unattended landfills and it is a long wait before the entire waste collected by a city or town is processed and only remnants disposed in the landfill,” the report states.
Last month, NGT had come down heavily on all the states and Union territories for not complying with its orders on solid waste management.