Waste Management: Centre To Introduce Star Ratings To Make Cities Garbage Free Through Competition

New Delhi: If your city is implementing concepts turned practices like waste segregation, recycling, composting, then it may stand a chance to receive high star ratings under Centre’s flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This exercise of rating comes in at a time when India is half way into the 2019 deadline set for the cleanliness mission. Having undergone two nationwide sanitation surveys or Swachh Survekshans, the star rating, which is another form of judging cities on cleanliness, will soon be introduced with an aim to push towards a garbage free society.

The announcement was recently made by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, which looks after the execution of Clean India Mission in urban areas. The concept of star ratings was discussed in a Swachh Bharat Mission workshop inaugurated by Housing and Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

Given its potential as a developmental-cum-aspirational tool for cities to incrementally improve their overall cleanliness, while working towards a garbage-free status, this is expected to greatly enthuse the city administrators, the ministry said in an official press release.

The ministry also noted that the star ratings will be different from the previous two Swachh Survekshans rankings. The ratings will not rank cities on basis of their cleanliness, waste management and open defecation free quotient.

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Instead, this time the multiple cities will have same star ratings depending on their performance.

During the workshop, a guide book for Urban Local Bodies on roles and responsibilities for bulk solid waste generators pertaining to solid waste management rules was launched.

Besides, an online database to capture data directly from states and cities regarding the progress of cleanliness mission was also launched on the occasion. This would enhance “the robustness and transparency” in monitoring the mission, the release said.

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The new star rating is in lines with the Swachh Survekshan 2018’s theme but will primarily focus more on waste management.

Condition of landfills, percentage of wet and  waste treated, percentage of biodegradable waste discarded onto the landfills, remediation of existing dumpsites undertaken, sale of city compost in last two quarters of 2017, etc are some of the parameters cities will be marked on in the survey which will kickstart from January next year.

In terms of sanitation enhancement, many rural and urban areas of the country have set standalone examples. The nation has witnessed citizens across India developing simple yet innovative ways to tackle garbage crisis or open defecation problems.

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