On the first anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission, the Urban Development Ministry on Thursday announced some crucial policy changes since it is planning to generate electricity and compost from municipal solid waste.
“Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers will soon bring a proposal before Cabinet to provide Market Development Assistance on sale of city compost to farmers,” said Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu. “Ministry of Power is in the process of amending the Electricity Act 2003 to enable mandatory purchase of power generated from municipal solid waste.”
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Naidu said the Power Ministry was finalising a tariff rate that would help “waste to energy projects” sustain in the market.
A senior official of Urban Development Ministry told The Hindu that since the purchase of waste generated electricity was mandatory, the tariff rates would be higher compared to coal and hydel energy.
“The cost of maintenance of [waste] power plants is higher than coal or hydel projects,” he said. “So it’s crucial to make these plants a crucial pillar for the income of municipalities.”
The official said that the Ministry has already sent notices to New Delhi based power providers—BSES Rajhdhani, Yamuna and Infrastructure Limited and Tata Power Delhi Distribution—directing them to include waste energy projects into their services.
The Ministry is also finalising the pricing model for the compost produced out of city trash. Mr. Naidu said that compost would be sold to farmers on subsidised rates.
Since the government recently faced criticism over falling behind on the yearly target of Swachh Bharat Mission, Mr. Naidu said the “the initiative targets minds of the people while other policies seek to meet the needs already felt in the mind.”
“One year is not enough,” Mr. Naidu said. “But things have started to move slowly and awareness [about Swachh Bharat Mission] is increasing.”
Mr. Naidu appealed the corporate players to a “do a little more” in building public toilets under PPP model of the mission.
Explaining the changes Swachh Bharat Mission will inspire in India’s railway sector, Mr. Naidu said bio-toilets would be installed in 8,368 coaches and another 4,400 added by next year. “It would cover 25% of existing 45000 coaches,” he said.
The mission aims to cover 1.04 crore households, provide 2.5 lakh community toilets and 2.6 lakh public toilets by 2019. Since its inception, the Ministry has recorded the construction of 4.6 lakh individual toilets and just 25,000 community and public toilets. The year 2015 has been quite slow with just a fifth of the targeted 25 lakh individual toilets and a fourth of the targeted 1 lakh community and public toilets built until September.
