The North Delhi Municipal Corporation is preparing an over Rs.100 crore scheme to overhaul its sanitation services as part of the Central government’s Swachh Bharat Mission, though it’s unclear how the cash-strapped civic body would fund the project.
New equipment, improvement work at garbage dumps and construction of public toilets would be part of the Rs.123 crore scheme, said Vijay Prakash Pandey, the Leader of the House of the corporation.
The civic body has been unable to carry out any big-ticket changes for lack of funds since the nationwide cleanliness campaign was launched in 2014.
Many ideas
According to the Commissioner of the North Corporation, Praveen Kumar Gupta, the civic body had received Rs. 42 crore from the Centre as funds for the Swachh Bharat Mission so far.
Mr. Pandey explained that a recent change in the rules of the Swachh Bharat Mission has made it easier for the municipality to plan these projects.
“Earlier the funding structure was 20-80, as in the Centre would give 20 per cent and we would have to fund the remaining. That has recently been changed to 40-60, which will make it easier for us to carry out certain big projects,” said Mr. Pandey.
He said that while the government would give 40 per cent of the funding, the corporation would fund the remaining 60 per cent through the budget for this financial year and the next.
“The projects will focus on new public toilets, a better system to manage municipal solid waste and development works at the landfill site,” Mr. Gupta said.
He said that plans for projects worth Rs.22 crore were ready and would be implemented within three months.
As a part of the scheme, the corporation would procure new loaders, two hydraulic chain excavators and 12 trucks at an approximate cost of Rs.30 crore. Another Rs.40 crore would be spent on improving the Bhalswa landfill site with a leachate treatment facility. For public toilets, Mr. Pandey said the Centre changed the guidelines for the Swachh Bharat Mission, allowing the civic body to build public facilities, rather than assist in household toilet construction.
Because of the need in rural areas, the government’s focus has been to increase the number of toilets in homes and the Swachh Bharat fund was available for those projects only. “But, we did not receive any requests from individuals, so we asked the government to allow us to make community toilet complexes through the Swachh Bharat fund.” He said that now that the government has agreed, the municipality would be focusing on constructing public toilets.
Projects include new public toilets, a better system to manage waste and development works at landfill site
