Visakhapatnam: HRD minister Ganta Srinivas Rao has said that the state government will spend the 13th Finance Commission grants of Rs 1,919 crore for solid waste management projects on public-private partnership basis in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the state. He inaugurated the 6th edition of International Symposium on Municipal Solid Waste Management with the theme ‘Smart Waste Management and Swachh Bharat Mission’ organised by Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Centre (APTDC), and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here on Friday.
Talking after the inaugurating the symposium he said, “The rise of urbanisation is posing various problems especially municipal solid waste sector. The state government has spent the 12th Finance Commission grant of Rs 374 crore exclusively for solid waste management which has greatly helped in improving the collection of waste, transportation machinery and in acquiring land for processing and disposal facilities. The 13th Finance Commission grants of Rs 1,919 crore has been allocated for solid waste management projects on public- private partnership basis in ULBs. Government of AP proposed to strengthen the Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) system covering collection, segregation, recycling, transportation processing and disposal including options for composting and Waste to Energy (WTE), disposal in all 110 ULBs in AP.”
He also said that participation from citizens and their support is required in successful management in MSW. In his special address GVMC Commissioner M. Hari Narayanan, mentioned that there is a rapid urbanisation in the last two decades and so are the challenges. Government of India's Swachh Bharat Mission, national technical expert, Dr Almitra H. Patel, in her special address, said that the waste is not being segregated properly and appealed to keep the wet and dry waste unmixed while collecting, transporting and disposing.
Earlier in his welcome address, CII Vizag chapter chairman, Dr V. Murali Krishna, expressed that the symposium will address important aspects of Smart Waste Management systems, from across the globe that may be benefiting Indian society, environment and stake holders of this sector. The technical sessions delivered by subject experts from various segments of Municipal solid waste sector and the topics were focused on waste to energy, conversion technologies, best practices on waste collection, storage, transfer and disposal and also the challenges as well as the solutions in it.
