GUWAHATI, March 24 � The State government has drawn the money allocated by the Central government for the purpose of management of Guwahati�s municipal solid waste (MSW), but it has not developed infrastructure for the purpose, alleged voluntary organisation Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG).
It has also urged the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) to develop the required infrastructure for proper management of the city�s MSW in case the private party, Ramky Enviro Engineers, withdraws from the field.
In a statement, the president of the voluntary organisation, Dhiren Barua, maintained that MSW management is an obligation of the urban local self-governing bodies of the country. The Supreme Court of India had constituted an eight-member committee in the last part of the 1990s to examine all aspects of MSW management in the Class-I cities of the country, each having a population over one lakh, with the then Commissioner of Calcutta Municipal Corporation Asim Barman.
The committee, in its report to the Supreme Court, recommended creation of separate departments under the urban local self-governing bodies for municipal solid waste (MSW) management. But the State government has failed to create the infrastructure for the purpose, though it has drawn the money allocated by the Central government with this aim in view.
Barua said the Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd, which was engaged to manage the Guwahati MSW, is now learnt to have been expressing its desire to withdraw. Following the withdrawal of Ramky, it would be a binding on the Guwahati Municipal Corporation to assume the responsibility of keeping Guwahati clean. This will be a Herculean task for the GMC if it fails to develop infrastructure for the purpose on a war footing, warned the voluntary organisation.
