SANITATION REPORT CARD

Bhubaneswar, May 22: The city aspires for a smart tag, but statistics reveal that the administration is not doing enough to achieve the goal.

Achieving the objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission is key to fulfilling the smart city dream but not much is being done in that direction. One of the major areas where the civic administration has faltered is in the construction of individual household latrines as well as community and public toilets in the city.

Government data shows that the civic body managed to construct only 11.28 per cent of the total number of individual household latrines planned to be built during 2015-16. The corresponding figure for public and community toilets is a poor 1.88 per cent.

The construction of individual household latrines in slum areas and public and community toilets are two of the major components under the Swachh Bharat Mission to make urban areas free of open defecation. However, the administration here seems least worried about achieving the targets.

Official data, on the backlog of the civic bodies under the Swachh Bharat Mission, accessed by The Telegraph revealed that the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been asked to construct 15,208 individual household latrines by the end of March this year, but it has been able to construct only 1,716 units.

"The municipality had distributed work orders for construction of household latrines in our area in February. They have distributed nearly 100 such orders and given us Rs 5,333 each. There are still more beneficiaries to be covered under this scheme," said Kalaki Mahata, a resident of Palasuni area. Work orders are handed over to individual householders who present to the government-chosen agency for execution of the job.

Similarly, the BMC has been given the task to construct 26 public toilets and 27 community toilets during 2015-16, but till now it has been able to construct only one public toilet, while the community toilet construction hangs fire. At present, the civic body is executing the ultra-modern hybrid toilet project. It has decided to construct more than 150 hybrid toilet complexes in the city by March next year.

The public and community toilet project in the city has been taken up under Project Samman in 2012, but as the civic body failed to show results the Swachh Bharat Mission Cell of housing and urban development department took over the project.

"I don't find any place for defecation. The city administration has failed to provide toilets for the public. In such a situation, the people are forced to defecate and urinate in the open. Where else can they go?" said Saheed Nagar resident Madhusudan Mohanty.

The municipal corporation has also failed to achieve the solid waste management target that the state government had set for it in 2015-16. The report accessed by this newspaper revealed that the civic body is yet to establish the waste-to-energy plant in its existing dump yard at Bhuasuni. The Swachh Bharat Mission target for the civic body was to complete and commission the plant by the end of March this year.

Similarly, the civic body is yet to achieve the target of conducting 100 per cent door-to-door collection of waste, followed y its segregation and processing.

"We have already identified an additional landfill site at Tulsadeipur adjacent to the existing Bhuasuni dump yard. Once we get the clearance from the pollution control board, we will execute the project," said municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar.

A city resident and teacher Debasish Mishra said that the municipal corporation had failed to manage solid waste and now they have introduced a rule to collect user fees for littering and dumping of garbage.

"What will they do with our money, if they cannot provide us adequate service," said Mishra.