Mysuru's success formula may be adopted in other towns

Focus to be on starting waste-processing units in district HQs

Mysuru retaining its tag as the cleanest city in the country has prompted the department of municipal administration to try and emulate the model in other towns in the State, especially district headquarters.

One of the prime reasons for Mysuru to retain the No.1 slot in a survey on cleanliness and sanitation, commissioned by the Union Urban Development Ministry to gauge the impact of Swachh Bharat Mission, is its strong solid waste management system. Mysuru has units to process 230 of the 440 tonnes of solid waste that it generates daily and capacity to treat 150 million litres per day (MLD) of sewerage. Besides, the Mysuru City Corporation launched an aggressive campaign to educate residents and business establishments on segregation of waste. 

“We are planning to start new solid waste processing units in towns. The process of calling tenders will commence soon. To start with, we have identified Hubballi-Dharwad, Ramanagar, Tumakuru, Davangere, Kanakapura among others for setting up the processing units,” Urban Development Department secretary (Municipalities and Urban Development Authorities) T K Anil Kumar said.

Waste-to-energy plants
The proposal is to take up such initiatives in all district headquarters. The next phase would be to set up waste-to-energy plants (the process of creating energy in the form of electricity or heat by the incineration of waste) in select towns. A waste-to-energy policy by utilising the technology in different parts of the State is being worked out, he said.

The State government had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Netherlands government for setting up waste-to-energy plant(s) in Bengaluru to dispose of garbage. The proposal is to set up plant(s) to dispose of 600 metric tonnes of garbage generated in the city. The government proposes to start the Bengaluru unit and later extend the plan to other towns.

The department is also contemplating to rank urban local bodies (ULBs) in the State based on actual performance as per Service Level Benchmarking (SLB) indicators. The SLB framework had 49 indicators across seven sectors including water supply, disease control, waste water management, solid waste management, roads, roadside drains and streetlights, development of parks and finances.

The initiative began a few years back, but was discontinued. Reviving the grading will help generate some healthy competition among ULBs, it is felt.

Weightages were assigned to each indicator, based on which the points and rankings were generated. Sources in the department said monthly reports will be sought from ULBs to monitor progress.