Indore in Madhya Pradesh bagged the top position among the 'cleanest cities' of India for the seventh consecutive time on Thursday as per Swachh Suvekshan Awards results, as reported by news agency PTI. The civic officials have said that the city's effective, sustainable, and durable waste management system played a big role in this success.
Indore and Gujarat's Surat city shared the top position in the central government's annual cleanliness survey for 2023. The survey was based on the theme 'Waste to Wealth'. It saw tough competition in different catgories among more than 4,400 cities.
The awards were given away to the winners by President Droupadi Murmu at an event held in New Delhi. The survey carried a total of 9,500 marks.
MP's Indore city secured 4,709.40 marks out of 4,830 under 'Service Level Progress' for segregated collection, processing and disposal of different types of waste, Indore Municipal Corporation's (IMC) consultant for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Amit Dubey, told PTI.
"A sustainable system of garbage collection, processing and disposal has been developed in Indore. The city's consecutive success in the National Cleanliness Survey is based on this strong foundation," he said, as quoted by PTI.
Dubey further stated that waste generation has reduced in Indore over a period of time with a complete ban on single-use plastic in the city. He added, the '3 R' (reduce, reuse and recycle) centres, cloth bags and utensil 'banks', parks developed using reusable things out of waste materials and home composting units have also helped in the reduction of waste in the city.
According to IMC officials, the waste from 4.65 lakh households and 70,543 commercial establishments is systematically sorted at the primary source and processed and disposed of at different plants in the city, as reported by PTI. Nearly 692 tonnes of wet waste, 683 tonnes of dry waste and 179 tonnes of plastic waste are collected every day in the city under different categories, the officials said.
For this, around 850 specially-designed vehicles are run across the city having different compartments for bio-waste items like diapers and sanitary napkins.
The waste from households in the city is collected after segregation under six categories at the doorsteps. A company is running a 'Gobar-Dhan' plant under public-private partnership (PPP) on 15 acres of land at Devguradiya trenching ground in the city.
The plant has the capacity to produce 17,000 to 18,000 kg of bio-CNG and 100 tonnes of organic fertilisers by processing 550 tonnes of wet waste (like fruits, vegetables and raw meat waste) every day, officials said, PTI reported. The bio-CNG produced at this plant is used to run 110 city buses, with the fuel being sold to the municipal corporation for Rs 5 per kilogram less than the prevailing market rate, they further stated.
This Award Is Dedicated To Lord Ram: Indore Mayor
Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava said that the award for cleanest city is dedicated to Lord Ram and it was made possible because of untiring efforts of people of Indore, workers, officials, and Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav.
"Indore has bagged the cleanest city award for the seventh time. This award is dedicated to Lord Ram and it was made possible because of untiring efforts of people of Indore, workers, officials, MP CM Mohan Yadav, minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. I congratulate everyone. Indore has now become a global model now," Bhargava said, as quoted by PTI.