A Short Note on Garbage Free Cities

According to the news report released by the government of India, dated December 24, 2021. The government celebrated this day as good governance day. On this very special day, the ministry of housing and urban affairs released a new method of assessing a garbage-free city. This method is known as Azadi scaling, which took the star rating protocol as the mode to assess the cities. This was considered the modern tool to assess a garbage-free city. On October first, 2021, our honourable prime minister launched the amended version of Swachh Bharat, Swachh Bharat 2.0, which created a garbage-free city. 

Participation of Cities and Star Rating

Under the Swachh Bharat mission, version 2, the urban local body is rated as a three-star garbage-free city. This mission was the basic need of the government. According to the recent data, 2238 cities participated in the mission, fifty per cent of the urban local bodies. Among 2238 cities, only 239 cities were ranked and given results; the following are the results:9 cities ranked as five star garbage-free cities in India, 143 cities ranked as 3-star, while 147 cities scored 1-star. There has been the release of funds by the central government towards the swachh Bharat mission to make urban local bodies concentrate on ground waste management.

Revision Points

• The points that are amended for the evaluation of garbage-free cities in India, the previous model of assessment is changed to improve and ease the assessment
• Previously 25 indicators have been used to assess the garbage-free city in India. It has been reduced to 24 indicators, where 16 indicators are advised as the mandatory indicators for one and three-star levels. Still, the remaining 8 qualities are checked in five garbage-free cities in India as these points are aspirational and are checked in a garbage-free city.
• Multiple-step mode of assessment has been reduced to a single step to ease the assessment and make it easy for the urban local bodies.
• This revised model of assessment utilises the points notified by the priorities insisted through the Swachh Bharat version 2.0, where priority is given to sample segregation, door to door collection, clean dumpsite usage, the mode of waste processing
• The mode of application and the paperwork before the application have been made digitised, and this mode of application is welcomed as the eco-friendly mode of application. This also reduces the work for the applicant or urban local body. This increases the participation percentage.
• Not a single assessment can determine the garbage-free city in India. Still, a complete year assessment can make you understand the deserving champion to hold the title of garbage-free city.
• The involvement of citizens living in the urban local bodies to participate in the cleaning process to make their city win is the best motive of this scheme. This motive will be successful only after complete awareness across the city. The city which makes this possible and efficient will win the title of garbage-free city.

Previous Results

During the covid pandemic, an assessment to find out the garbage-free city in India is conducted. This scheme of conducting the assessment is continued as a ritual without any break. From 2020 to 2021, the cities that won the title of five-star garbage-free cities are Rajkot, Mysore, Navi Mumbai, Surat, Indore and Ambikapur.In the competition, the honour was shared by 141 garbage-free cities, where six took the place of garbage-free five-star cities, 65 took the position of three-star cities, and 70 cities took the position of one star.

The prominent cities that deserved and secured three-star ranking are New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Jamshedpur, Tirupathi, and Vijayawada.

Conclusion

The waste produced in our country ranges from mechanical to medical wastes; these wastes, rather than producing Ill Effects on the respiratory system, can also cause infectious diseases through medicinal wastes. These wastes should be incinerated or should be properly disposed of. These wastes are prone to cause disease among other people. So the scheme Swacch Bharat has proved efficient in carpeting the best cities with increased cleanliness and ensured better paths. The amended version had ensured increased participation of cities in this competition with increased people’s support to make their city a garbage-free city.