Shimla, May 22 (PTI) The state government has issued model bye-laws for solid waste management and sanitation-2025 under Section 188 of the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 to strengthen solid waste and sanitation services in rural areas, officials on Thursday said.

All gram panchayats have been directed to adopt these model bye-laws within six months. The bye-laws focus on proper segregation of waste at source, door-to-door collection, imposition of penalties for violations and recovery of user charges from every household and establishment, said a spokesperson of the Rural Development department in a statement issued here.

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He said that funds collected would be used for operation and maintenance of sanitation assets and hiring manpower for daily waste collection.

The gram panchayats have also been given the flexibility to decide user charges and penalties according to local conditions.

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The new rules, which aim to address the increasing problem of solid waste in villages, would encourage panchayats to provide regular waste management services. The citizens, in turn, would be empowered to demand these services.

The spokesperson said that effective implementation of these bye-laws would also ensure proper utilization of financial support being provided by the state government for solid waste management.

As per the new guidelines, the gram panchayats would be responsible for arranging door-to-door waste collection through waste pickers or authorized agencies and the collected waste would be taken to segregation sheds set up at the panchayat level.

Recyclable plastic waste would be sold to recyclers, while non-recyclable waste would be sent to plastic waste management units at the block level and further forwarded to cement plants for co-processing.

The department has already signed formal agreements with cement plants to process this waste in an environmentally safe manner, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)