Dohling terms assessment of Shillong as dirtiest city ‘incorrect’
Urban Affairs Minister, Hamletson Dohling on Friday termed the assessment of the Swachh Survekshan, 2020 that Shillong city is one of the dirtiest cities in the country as “incorrect”.
“To simply categorize Shillong as one of the dirtiest cities in the country is therefore an incorrect assessment,” Dohling said in a statement here.
According to him, it is very unfortunate that the capital city of Shillong was ranked very low in terms of cleanliness according to the nationwide survey, Swachh Survekshan 2020.
He said a thorough introspection was made by the Department of Urban Affairs and the Shillong Municipal Board.
The minister also justified that the ranking was based largely on four parameters consisting of certification, service levels, direct observation and citizen feedback.
He said the SMB scored very well in a service level parameter which carries 1500 marks adding the scoring was based on the data which was taken from the MIS uploaded by the SMB on the Swachh Bharat Mission portal every quarter of last year.
“There are however a few indicators in this parameter in which the SMB did not score well namely the processing and disposal indicators as the infrastructure for processing and sanitary land-fill was still under construction,” he said.
Dohling also said in the certification parameter which carries total marks of 1500, also the SMB did not score well as it is yet to be a certified Garbage Free City.
“Besides in the absence of a sewerage system which is a legacy issue, the city scored low in the sustainable sanitation indicator as well. Also there was a lack of participation by the citizens of the City in the survey conducted through the MyGov app for their feedback. This has also resulted in the loss of about 1500 marks,” he said.
He said it may be pointed out that in spite of the ranking the city had gone through a significant improvement in terms of cleanliness.
“Shillong was the first City in the Country to have practised segregation at source, with over 70% household in the city complying since 2015-16, even before the SWM Rules 2016 had made segregation mandatory for all,” he said.
“We were also among the firsts to do away with intermediate storage of waste (community bins) in residential localities, where door to door collection of waste is being carried out. On the processing and disposal, the installation of 170 tons per day compost plant and 8500 sq.m sanitary landfill are almost completed,” the minister added.
Meanwhile, Dohling informed that the state of Meghalaya has also notified the Meghalaya Solid Waste Management Policy.
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Outside municipal area, building permission is given by local durbar / headmen who in most of the cases neither have the technical knowledge nor the resources to do justice to their job. Unscrupulous house owners violated norms and in many localities, people discharge their septic tank directly into public drains while the whole locality is watching. The air is thick with foul smell all the time.
This is very rampant in almost all localities.