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Time of India
19-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
NMC's lack of sync within cost Nagpur of clean city tag
1 2 Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is preparing to raise formal objections over its 27th rank in the Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 with the ministry of housing and urban affairs. Despite scoring 9,328 out of 12,500 points — an improvement from last year — the city failed to secure the coveted "Clean City" tag or even a garbage-free city (GFC) star. But instead of external shortcomings, it is the civic body's internal dysfunction, lack of planning, and poor coordination that seem to have cost Nagpur its place among India's top clean cities. Officials continue to highlight notable initiatives like construction and demolition waste processing, compressed biogas plant, and biomining project at Bhandewadi. These efforts fell flat due to mismanagement, delayed execution, and the inability to present them effectively to central survey teams. Incredibly, key officials did not even review the official Swachh Survekshan toolkit, which details evaluation parameters, said sources in NMC. Apathy, infighting, and administrative inertia held the city back from improved rankings, sources added. When the Central evaluation team arrived in Nagpur, they encountered disarray — blazing fires at Bhandewadi dumping ground disrupted the schedule, while delays in biomining further damaged the city's image. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Do This Before Bed And Watch Your Tummy Shrink Beauty Ideas Read More Undo A major setback came with the sudden transfer of additional commissioner Aanchal Goyal, who laid out a comprehensive action plan. Sources in NMC claimed that deputy commissioner Vijay Deshmukh, in charge of solid waste management, took little interest in steering the campaign. Despite repeated underperformance, NMC never constituted a dedicated expert taskforce. Departments worked in silos, and no coherent strategy or roadmap was put in place for the survey. In 2022, NMC hired a Mumbai-based firm KPMG for Rs2.4 crore to handle documentation and data presentation. Though the firm offered six months of free service after their contract ended in December 2024, NMC failed to integrate its own officials with the firm—further eroding internal ownership and morale. Key public health engineering department officials were absent from planning and monitoring, despite their role in managing water bodies, sewage systems, and desilting operations. Even the civic chief did not issue any binding instructions to involve the department, resulting in yet another gap in coordination. "Responsibility was dumped solely on the solid waste management department, while other crucial wings — such as public health engineering, water supply, and toilet infrastructure — remained disengaged. Officials failed to share project documentation or collaborate, exposing a complete breakdown in unified planning," said the source. Even as municipal commissioner Abhijit Chaudhari says NMC will contest the survey results with the ministry of housing and urban affairs and demand a review, the civic body is now finally talking about building a more robust internal structure for future assessments.
Hans India
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Maha govt to establish separate cell for waste management: Dy CM
Mumbai: Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday in the state assembly announced that a separate cell will be set up to resolve the problems faced by the municipal corporations and municipalities in the state in waste management. He was responding to a question raised by BJP legislator Vijay Deshmukh in this regard. Members Abhimanyu Pawar and Arjun Khotkar also raised a sub-question. Shinde said that the work of disposing of the waste collected daily from Solapur city in a scientific manner is being done by Solapur Bioenergy Company Limited. A biogas project with a capacity of 300 tons per day is operating here, and biogas and fertiliser are produced from wet waste, while dry waste is separated and sent to processing industries. 'Proper classification of waste in municipalities and municipal corporations is essential. Instructions have already been given to the Principal Secretary of the Urban Development Department to resolve the problems of small municipalities and municipal corporations in this regard. The state government will provide necessary assistance to all such places. The Principal Secretary of the Urban Development Department will be instructed to verify the resolutions so that the process of taking resolutions in the municipality remains transparent at all times,' he said. Minister of State Madhuri Misal said that in Solapur city, garbage is collected from house to house using bell carts. However, there is a problem that garbage accumulates in some slum areas even after the bell carts are used. Currently, about seven lakh tons of waste have been dumped in Solapur city. Of this, about five lakh tons of waste have been collected. Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister, in his reply to another question by Shiv Sena UBT legislator Bhaskar Jadhav, announced that inquiry will be conducted through the Divisional Commissioner in connection with two different schemes used for water supply works being carried out under the Maharashtra Golden Jayanti Urban Redevelopment Mission in the jurisdiction of Chakan Municipal Council. 'Under the Maharashtra Golden Anniversary Urban Redevelopment Mission, the water supply work under the district level scheme of Chakan Municipal Council was given administrative approval on February 24, 2024 and work order on March 13, 2024. Although an extension has been given till March 31, 2025, the Chakan Municipal Council has proposed to recover the delay penalty for non-completion of the work by the contractor. However, when it was observed that orders had also been given under the state-level scheme at the same place, instructions were given to the concerned on May 13, 2025, to stop the work, and no payment has been made from the state-level scheme,' he said.
