Srinagar, Sept 23: Every Gram Panchayat in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to be covered under a comprehensive “solid waste management” campaign with the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha led administration set to provide one e-cart (Electric vehicle) to every gram-panchayat, official sources said.
The officials said that the project will be rolled out in a phased manner in order to cover all the 4281 Gram Panchayats of the Union Territory.
In this regard, the Directorate of Rural Sanitation has already floated tenders in the second week of this month (September) under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen)-II, official sources added.
“During the first phase, a total of 700 twin bin e-carts will be procured for solid waste management in the rural areas. It has been a grave issue in rural areas due to the lack of proper garbage treatment/dumping facility,” Director Rural Sanitation J&K, Charandeep Singh told Rising Kashmir.
According to the 26-page proposal prepared by the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, in the first phase 350 e-carts will be provided each in hilly and plain areas of the UT of J&K.
“The actual quantity of e-carts may increase and is subject to change as per the requirement,” reads the proposal underscoring the main objectives to ensure solid waste collection and disposal, solid waste collection from individual houses,” it reads.
The e-cart will have a fully electric battery operated fitted with the twin bin garbage containers.
It will be for the first time that the government has shifted its focus on the much needed solid waste management in rural Kashmir apart from some cosmetic measures of Panchayats providing two colour-coded dustbins, one each for disposable and non- disposable waste.
There is a waste segregation or dumping system in place in the urban areas with Srinagar, the summer capital, having a landfill site at Saidapora, Achan where the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) dumps the waste in a scientific manner. However for rural areas, there has been no system in place till date.
“Every day around 350 tons of garbage is unloaded by vehicles of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) at Acchan site and the waste generation in 2035 is expected to be 1723 tons per day,” according to a report by Mariya Batool, who studies Environmental Science, at Cluster University, Srinagar.
