Municipalities must corroborate; NITI Aayog blames them for filthiness in the surroundings..!

New Delhi, March 21: “Municipalities are simply not doing their jobs. Municipalities have entered the business of construction and others when their primary job was to ensure that areas in their jurisdictions were clean”, said NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant blaming them for the abysmal state of waste management in the country at a conference on circular economy and waste management organised by non-profits Chintan and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and University of Chicago-India at the national capital.

 

While other experts at the event didn’t second his views, Kant went on to say, “Unless we don’t pin them down, we may not be able to see our premises clean,” adding that municipalities have enough resources to not just ensure cleanliness but also segregate waste at source.

Kant also praised the Indore model of cleanliness and emphasised that it should be replicated by each and every municipality in the country.

Meanwhile, Malati Gadgil, former CEO, SWaCH, Pune, said that there were many ground level reports that the waste is being carbonized in Indore. “This is highly unsustainable. The policymakers must give a serious second thought to making the Indore model scalable for the entire country”, she said.

“The emphasis has to be on recycling. The key to recycling is segregation at source for which a mass movement is required”, said Manbir Sodhi, a professor at the University of Rhode Island.

He also talked about the fact that India has to frame such policies which promote use of spare parts. “At present, most of the automobile companies see to it that spare parts of vehicles are so costly that it becomes unviable to purchase one produced out of spare parts. If China can force Mercedes Benz to change its policy, India can do the same with automobile manufacturers,” he asked.

While talking about creating a circular economy, Kant said there’s a need to use waste as a secondary source, collaborate with corporate, rethink business model, and create a digital platform where the entire supply chain can be traced.

“Plus there is lot of uncertainty. Today, if a company decided to make a plan for five years for recycling in India, it can’t because of two reasons at least. One, there is variation of laws among different states. Two, it is not sure if it would be able to get the required amount of waste material to achieve its targets,” he said further adding that if a circular economy is created, it will not only help clean the environment but also create a lot of jobs.