Bhubaneswar, Aug. 4: The civic body will form city and ward-level committees to look after sanitation issues.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has taken up this step abiding by the new Municipal Solid Waste Management By-law, 2017, and the Odisha Urban Sanitation Strategies, 2017.

The ward-level committee will have 11 to 15 members while the city-level taskforce will have 12 members headed by the mayor.

The ward-level committee will look after sanitation issues at various wards and will report it to the city-level taskforce. The two committees will meet every fortnight to come up with solutions to various problems.

"Each committee will play their role on a proactive basis. The ward-level committee will play a pivotal role since they will be on the ground. There are plans to confer the power of levying fines on garbage-dump-rule violators with the ward-level committee," said a senior civic body official.

The ward-level committee will have members such as ward councillor, tax collector, and representatives of respective residents' welfare associations, slum sanitation committees and community-based organisations, apart from local leaders and senior citizens.

The committee will look after the sanitation and cleanliness activities at wards and act as a grievance redress point.

It will also promote home composting, biogas generation and decentralised processing of waste at the community level. It will collect user fees from the residents.

The city-level taskforce will create a city sanitation plan based on the inputs from the ward-level committees. It will also ensure use of sanitary latrine by ensuring safe disposal of sewage and liquid waste.

The committee will further work with support organisations and line department for setting up a system that enables community-level monitoring and management of common sanitary facilities.

"It will be a great move of the state government to decentralise the process to ensure cleanliness at the ground level. The plan will bring in participation of local residents in the activities, which will help us achieve the goal of a clean city. I hope that the committees work properly according to the guidelines," said Anish Mishra, a resident of Sailashree Vihar.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they had got the direction and put the officials on the job for formation of the committees.

"It will take about a month to put the committees to work. This is in an initiative to solve problems at the ground level. To achieve a clean city tag, we need participation of more local citizens. These committees will do the job for everyone," said Jena.