Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 17: On the directions of Governor N N Vohra, a meeting was convened by B B Vyas, Financial Commissioner Planning and Development Department, to urgently review all the problems relating to Solid Waste Management (SWM) of Srinagar city.
After the exhaustive review, Mr Vyas discussed the entire matter with the Governor and accordingly several decisions were taken to address sanitation and waste management issues in Srinagar.
It was decided that Srinagar Municipal Corporation will clear 1350 MTs of garbage which had accumulated up to March 16, clear the balance garbage by March 18 and Commissioner SMC will be responsible for taking immediate action, as an interim measure, to cover heaps of solid waste, about 3000 MTs approximately, spread over 150 kanals of land, with plastic sheets to address the issue of foul smell.
It was further decided that the Commissioner SMC will take immediate action to ensure proper utilization of the cycles (funded under ADB Project) for collection of garbage from within narrow streets and take immediate action to enlarge the pilot project undertaken by CHINTAN for the segregation of wastes at source-points of collection from the existing 2 to 10 wards.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar will take immediate action to remove all encroachments and illegal constructions which have come up around the Achan land fill site and ERA will support the efforts for speeding up garbage dumping and leachate removal arrangements at Cell-II in Achan. To enable additional dumping of about 30,000 MTs, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir will ensure availability to ERA of adequate quantity of earth from the nearest possible source(s).
Mr Vyas informed the Governor that Commissioner SMC has been directed to procure a mechanical segregator for which Rs 1.82 crore had been released by Housing & Urban Development Department in January 2016, ensure proper arrangements of leachate treatment at Achan in coordination with ERA, urgent action to double the existing capacity leachate treatment facility (set up by ERA) from 5 MTs to 10 Mts within 90 days, by June 20, 2016, under State Government funding support.
Housing & Urban Develop-ment Department has already made available Rs 20.69 crore to SMC for creation of ancillary facilities to pave the way for installation of a mechanical segregator for which about 900 kanals of land is also available.
Among the longer term measures, it was decided to significantly expand the Land Fill capacities/ facilities, for which the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir will identify additional Land-Fill sites for meeting the future requirements for waste disposal. The Divisional Commissioner has been directed to identify viable sites for locating such facilities at least two each in North and South Kashmir.
The Governor has directed that the Action Plan shall be closely monitored by FC (P&D) to ensure that there is no slippage whatsoever in the timelines and fortnightly progress reports sent by him to the Governor.
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