Bhubaneswar: The popular tagline “Clean and Green Bhubaneswar’’ has once again proven its mettle as Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has got one Silver and one Bronze Award at the prestigious Skoch Award at New Delhi.
While the largest civic body of the State received Silver citation for “Improved Collection and Transportation of Solid Waste,’’ it received Bronze citation for “Community Toilets Construction and Maintenance’’ across the city for qualifying amongst top ranking Swachh Bharat projects in India.
With a burden of 550 matric tonnes per day (MTPD) solid waste being generated in a day currently, the civic administration is under a terrible pressure to manage the waste. However, with efficient planning, door-to-door collection and handling of the waste, tracking of garbage vehicles through Bhubaneswar Operations Centre, redressal of complaints through Social Media tools within 24 hours, Zero Waste Facility during Hockey World Cup, introduction of mechanical sweeping, scientific faecal sludge and septage management and plantation drives the city is proving its capability as one of the cleanest cities in the Eastern Horizon.
Similarly, towards improving community toilets BMC has constructed new 164 community toilets for users with poor sanitation access. The old and existing community toilets with a total number of 676 seats have been repaired and renovated to improve its usability and ensure its availability to users. While all toilets have been marked on Google map for their geographical locations to increase its use, contracts have been signed with ward sanitation committees to sustain their sanitation status and motivate people to use them.
It would be pertinent to mention here that over the years, BMC, the largest Corporation of Odisha has increased expenditures related to sanitation ensuring quality of life for its citizens. It has already notified municipal bylaws for SWM 2016 and user charges to be collected from citizens for recovering expenditures incurred.
Skoch Award, instituted in 2003, is the highest civilian honour in the country conferred by an independent organisation. It recognises people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation. The award covers the best of efforts in the area of digital, financial and social inclusion. It encompasses the best of governance, inclusive growth, excellence in technology and applications, change management, corporate leadership, corporate governance, citizen service delivery, capacity building, empowerment and other such softer issues that get normally lost in the glamour and glitz of industry sponsored or advertising focussed jamborees.
Skoch Group is a think tank dealing with socio-economic issues with a focus on inclusive growth since 1997.
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