After announcement of star ratings of Garbage Free Cities (GFC) 2020 in which the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) saw a drop from two-star to one-star on May 19, the civic body is going to write a letter to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) through Swachh Andhra Corporation, Vijayawada, for reverification of the ratings.
The GVMC officials claim that the survey team appointed by the MoHUA which had come for inspection to the city failed to visit the Construction and Demolition (C&D) plant which is being operated at Kapuluppada, resulting in which the marks allotted for the C&D waste in the rating is zero.
“We have checked with the staff at the C&D plant at Kapulappada and even the storage and collection points. They said that none of the survey team members had inspected the plant,” said Chief Medical and Officer of Health (CMOH), K.S.L.G. Sastry.
He said that the GVMC has signed an agreement for the C&D plant in the year 2017. In 2019, the plant had started operating. Moreover during the GFC survey in 2019, the civic body received good marks for C&D plant parameter. But in the survey conducted in 2020, the civic body was shown ‘failed’ though the plant is being operated in a full-fledged manner.
According to Additional Commissioner V. Sanyasi Rao, there are three indicators – Mandatory Parameters, Essential Parameters and Desirable Parameters. In Mandatory, Essential parameters, we received good score, but in the Desirable parameters, the GVMC scored zero since we failed in C&D waste component.
He said that during the documentation which they have submitted to the Ministry, they have submitted complete details about the C&D plant including the pictures of the plants, its eight storage and collection points, logbook evidence and others. The portal hinted that the city could get a five-star rating.
Mr. Sanyasi Rao also said that the contractor for the C&D plant in Visakhapatnam and Tirupati are the same. The contractor was even shocked as the activity in C&D plant Vizag is more than that in Tirupati. While Tirupati got 100 marks in this criteria, Vizag got zero, he added. “It may be a technical mistake and the survey team might have missed visiting the plant. If a ULB has a C&D plant, the team would give minimum marks of 20 or 30, which is enough to get three-star rating. It is to be remembered that the GVMC C&D plant has been functioning for the last one year,” he said.
