India News | Par Panel Holds Discussions with J&K Officials

Srinagar, Aug 17 (PTI) The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Subordinate Legislation on Tuesday held threadbare discussions with the Jammu and Kashmir administration on various issues related to solid waste management, and asked officials to double their efforts to make Srinagar the cleanest city.

The delegation was led by panel chairman Partap Singh Bajwa, an official spokesman said.

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He said the committee was briefed by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta about the historical steps taken by the administration during the past couple of years.

The chief secretary informed the delegation that the union territory has fully adopted the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution bringing governance to the grassroots level.

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Mehta said that the UT has the distinction of being an open defecation free region, besides having the robust system of door-to-door collection of waste in municipal areas.

Mehta also mentioned that there is proper rule of law in the UT now and institutions have been strengthened at every level.

The chief secretary said that around 9,514 projects worth Rs 3,900 crore have been completed in J-K.

He said that each project has to be now mandatorily e-tendered here bringing transparency in the system of award of contracts and quality of work executed.

In a separate presentation, Housing and Urban Development Department Principal Secretary Dheeraj Gupta said that J-K has formulated and implemented the policy and strategy for solid waste management (SWM) and devised an action plan and bylaws for the same. He gave out that tenders for bio-remediation of nine polluted rivers has already been floated.

In his presentation the Commissioner Secretary, Forests, Sanjeev Verma presented the status of cleanliness of various water bodies here including lakes and rivers.

The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Commissioner told the parliamentary committee that the corporation is catering to about 1.55 million population, having nearly 1.84 lakh households.

He mentioned the corporation is scheduled to collect about 526 tonnes of waste daily. He gave out that 60 per cent municipal area is serviced by door-to-door collection of waste.

The commissioner said SMC is working on an innovative idea of 'Sunday for Srinagar' to clean areas that are neglected or vulnerable for garbage accumulation.

The commissioner said that to tackle the menace of polythene pollution, the SMC is currently running a campaign.

The parliamentary committee appreciated the measures taken by the UT administration in achieving certain goals and fulfilling the parameters of Swachh Bharat Mission. They said that 'Sunday for Srinagar' initiative is an impressive idea and should be adopted nationwide, the spokesman said.

The committee exhorted the officials that the efforts need to be doubled so that next time Srinagar comes up as the cleanest hill station instead of its current ranking of 36th, he said.

Earlier, the parliamentary committee enquired from various oil companies like IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, ONGC and GAIL about the codes of practice for emergency response and disaster management plan. They asked about the SoPs and other checking put in place at all their installations here to avoid exigencies.

It was said that the companies have a robust safety system in place.

(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)