‘Citizens’ role key in cleanliness’: PMC official Sandip Kadam says night checks, penalties imposed to deter garbage dumping

Sandip Kadam: The tendency to dump waste alongside the roads is seen among commercial units like restaurants, hawkers, etc, and they dump it late at night at locations where there is no public movement. We are focusing on resolving this. Those residing in the area are not involved in dumping waste alongside roads. The PMC has now placed 30 per cent of its cleanliness staff on night shift who will focus on eliminating such chronic garbage spots. At present, the civic body lifts 300 tonnes of waste dumped alongside roads daily.

Who is responsible for checking construction debris dumped alongside roads and open plots?

Sandip Kadam: The construction debris is also dumped in open plots or on roadsides at night. This takes place in the outskirts. The Pune civic administration has directed ward offices to act tough against those dumping debris. The plot owner is served a notice and made to barricade the open plot and if there is still no change, then they are penalised.

Pune city has been ranked eighth in the country on the Cleanliness Index. Where are we falling short when it comes to improving our ranking?

Sandip Kadam: The civic body has been taking efforts to improve its ranking in the Centre’s Swachh Survekshan. The municipal commissioner has given instructions that the civic administration should not run behind ranking and must instead focus on maintaining cleanliness. Citizens should realise that the city is getting clean. The ranking will automatically improve.

Moreover, the Swachh ranking has many parameters like sanitation, beautification, green cover, etc, so mere solid waste management does not decide the ranking. If there is consistency in maintaining cleanliness for 12 months of the year rather than just for competition, then things will change slowly and permanently.

Citizens play a major role in keeping the city clean. How are we creating public awareness on cleanliness?

Sandip Kadam: Cleanliness in the city cannot be achieved without public participation. The city’s population is around 70 lakh while the PMC has only 12,000 staff for cleanliness purposes. It is practically not possible to keep the city clean only through civic staff. Citizens have to play a major role by ensuring they don’t make it dirty, and they must also help the civic administration in cleaning the city.

The Pune civic body is doing public awareness through its Information, Communication and Education (ICE) model. Citizens are involved in cleanliness drives, and awareness activities are being carried out among school and college students as they are the future of the city. Good habits inculcated at a young age will last forever and will be helpful for the city.

Will the PMC get serious about penalising people who are frequently found to be violating rules in public places?

Sandip Kadam: The Pune civic administration has increased its action against those making the city dirty. It takes action against 5,000 citizens and collects fines of around Rs 4 lakh every month. However, the intention is not to penalise, but to make the citizens change themselves and keep the city clean. This will continue as it is one way to keep a check on those who throw waste in public places and create unhygienic conditions.

There is a door-to-door waste collection system in part of Pune city. Does it help with the effective handling of garbage?

Sandip Kadam: The outcome was very good when the door-to-door waste collection initiative was launched, and it helped the civic body in handling waste effectively. The initiative was meant to provide livelihood to waste pickers while also improving waste management. However, those who are carrying out the door-to-door waste collection have not improved their ways or upgraded with time when it comes to handling the waste.

Also, the door-to-door waste collection service is only in half of the city. Those engaged in this activity should use mechanisation to further improve their services and extend it to other places. The door-to-door waste collectors segregate the waste and leave the rejected waste alongside the roads, giving rise to more chronic waste spots.

Are there any plans to replace the door-to-door garbage collection through the Swachh cooperative of waste-pickers?

Sandip Kadam: The poor waste pickers will not be thrown out. Instead, they are appealed to join the Pune civic body in collecting waste directly from citizens. The Pune civic administration’s only intention is to keep all public places clean with no chronic spots in the city. For this, the waste has to be picked from the source so that it is not dumped in the open. We are trying a system for the city wherein the waste collected is directly submitted in small vehicles which will transfer it to big contractors to transport it to processing plants.

Does the PMC have enough capacity to process its waste?

Sandip Kadam: The Pune civic body is capable of processing all the waste generated in the city. It has processing plants for treating different types of waste. The dry waste is completely processed, while most of the wet waste is being given to farmers for composting.

The Pollution Control Board has strict rules for maintaining a buffer zone of 200 metres for processing wet waste. The Pune civic body does not have such a big land parcel in the densely populated city. Citizens too oppose it. Thus, the civic body plans to encourage farmers in the district to set up a waste processing plant. The existing waste plants in the city are operated scientifically and are being decentralised so that they are in different corners of the region.