Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Telangana do not comply with the Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) rules like segregation at source, point to point door collection, transportation and processing of waste to minimise burden on the landfills.
The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on local bodies tabled in the Legislative Assembly few days ago points out that the monitoring mechanism for tackling municipal solid waste was “inadequate” and “absence of segregation at various levels was only posing health hazards and inconvenience to the citizens.”
An audit of the implementation of solid waste management rules in the last five years (2010-11 to 2014-15) in two municipal corporations of Nizamabad and Warangal as well as two municipalities of Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda, showed lacunae when benchmarked against the rules notified by the government, including the medical waste and e-waste handling steps. Significantly, the government did not earmark any specific allocation for implementation of activities under the MSW management rules although the Union Government released grants through the 12{+t}{+h}Finance Commission from 2005-06 to 2010-11 - Mahabubnagar - Rs.3.45 crore, Nalgonda - Rs.2.91 crore, Nizamabad - Rs.7.62 crore and Warangal - Rs.13.98 crore.
But, “expenditure shown to have been utilised out of the 12{+t}{+h}Finance Commission grants was not entirely incurred for the purpose for which it was granted,” the CAG said. Instances of the funds being diverted for Rajiv Awas Yojana, formation of roads, wage payments, provident fund, etc., have been listed. At a few places, the funds were not reimbursed even after the money released for acquiring land for garbage dumping yard, once it was realised the land belonged to the government.
The report stated the ULBs checked had not made any action plan for collection and disposal of waste despite specific instructions. There was no system for segregating waste into bio-degradable and non-biodegradable through two different bins plus the hospitals, clinics and others did not have any tie up with any agency for disposal of bio-degradable waste. Insisting on segregation and disposal of bio-medical waste during the issue would have ensured compliance, it said.
The CAG mentioned that the government had accepted segregation of waste at source was “not satisfactory”; however, “30 per cent segregation was being done by public health workers during collection and rag pickers at secondary storage points and at dump yards.”
It was also observed that the ULBs were not levying fee from the bulk garbage generators like hotels, hospitals, function halls, clubs, markets, commercial complexes with 20 or more shops, cinema halls, workshops, etc., and the loss of revenue has been put at Rs.1.22 crore in two of them while there was a short collection of Rs.1.27 crore during the period in one ULB.
Details were not forthcoming about the “unserviceable vehicles” used for transporting solid waste, about the actual waste generated, etc. Segregation of e-waste was not done either at source or at transfer station/dumping yard any of the ULBs checked leading to environmental hazard. No system was also adopted to generate power from garbage too, CAG report added.
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