Aurangabad’s slot in Top 20 clean city list seems distant

  • | Saturday | 25th February, 2017

Aurangabad: The municipal body is eyeing a place in the list of top twenty clean cities in the country and is building castles in the air to achieve the distinction. The municipal body had decided to conduct a drive to rid the city of plastic bags, but never followed through with it. The solid waste management system, which is responsible for cleanliness in a city, is in a state of mess.One of the main reasons for this is the lack of planning by civic authorities. Majority of the shopkeepers and hawkers use it fearlessly as the municipal authorities have even stopped penalizing the violators.Municipal commissioner Om Prakash Bakoria had told TOI about three months back that the civic authorities will soon launch a drive to prevent the violations. "Even though huge quantities of garbage are arriving at the spot, the lack of garbage collection containers force many rickshaw drivers to dump the trash on the spot," said a sanitary inspector preferring anonymity.

Aurangabad: The municipal body is eyeing a place in the list of top twenty clean cities in the country and is building castles in the air to achieve the distinction. The solid waste management system, which is responsible for cleanliness in a city, is in a state of mess.One of the main reasons for this is the lack of planning by civic authorities. The municipal body had decided to conduct a drive to rid the city of plastic bags, but never followed through with it. While the municipal corporation did procure additional vehicles to lift garbage and deposit at the collection point, the authorities failed to plan the next course of action and as a result one can spot heaps of unattended garbage in several areas of the city.The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation has been plagued by severe financial issues. In order to streamline the solid waste management system, the civic body needs hook loaders, tippers, jetting machines, garbage collection containers and several such equipments that aid collection and disposal of trash.Recently, the AMC added 50 hydraulic auto rickshaws to its fleet of 171 rickshaws to speed up the process of garbage handling. The new vehicles have played their part as the amount of garbage arriving at about 80 collection points across the city has increased significantly, but the municipal body lack facilities to further move the garbage."Even though huge quantities of garbage are arriving at the spot, the lack of garbage collection containers force many rickshaw drivers to dump the trash on the spot," said a sanitary inspector preferring anonymity. He also said that the authorities should have provided enough hook loaders to carry the garbage."The auto rickshaws have only strengthened our garbage carrying system between citizens' door steps to the collection points, but from there on we still rely on the handful of hood loaders and skip loaders," he said.When quizzed about the situation, U G Shirsat, deputy engineer in the civic body, told TOI that the municipal body will soon add eight tippers and six jetting machine to its fleet of vehicles deployed for handling garbage.Recently, when a team from the Union government arrived in the city for the Swachh Bharat Survey, the municipal authorities had cleaned a garbage collection point located in Gadia Vihar and put rangoli on the spot. However, as soon as the authorities left the city, people started dumping garbage on the spot and the officials have not paid any heed to it.Leader of house Gajanan Mangate, said, "Unattended heaps of the garbage could be spotted at many locations. In Pundaliknagar area, garbage is laying on the road dividers, but no one is removing it," he said.In the list of ambitious plans by the civic body, the officials had planned to rid the city of plastic carry bags below 50 micron thickness and banned the material. The ban, although, has been long forgotten as the plastic is easily available in the markets. Majority of the shopkeepers and hawkers use it fearlessly as the municipal authorities have even stopped penalizing the violators.Municipal commissioner Om Prakash Bakoria had told TOI about three months back that the civic authorities will soon launch a drive to prevent the violations. But, nothing has been implemented yet.

If You Like This Story, Support NYOOOZ

NYOOOZ SUPPORTER

NYOOOZ FRIEND

Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.


Stay updated with all the Latest Aurangabad headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.

Related Articles