SILCHAR, March 27 - At a time when the city of Silchar, the second biggest urban sprawl has been struggling to find a plausible solution to the burgeoning problem of municipal solid waste management, renowned waste management expert C Srinivasan came up with his �Vellore model� of Solid and Liquid Resource Management in Silchar.
Srinivasan, who was invited by the Cachar district administration and Silchar Municipal Board at the two-day seminar on waste management held at the District Library auditorium said that with a little effort, garbage can be changed into a source of job creation and endless resources. To motivate the participants, including members from local NGOs and Self Help Groups, Srinivasan, who is the project director of India Green Service delivered a speech on �Garbage to gold� at the seminar.
Talking to The Assam Tribune on the sidelines of the seminar, Srinivasan said, �The so called waste is not waste but resource that fetches income. A decentralised process to dispose of the waste is the need of the hour for the city which has 20,000 families within the muncipal area together with around 3000 shops and commercial establishments. Engaging members from the SHGs can generate monthly revenue of Rs 27,000 with a minimum of Rs 3 per day collected from each household.�
Srinivasan, who is also the State consultant on the cleanliness mission said that it is the people who must shoulder the responsibility to keep the surrounding clean and government will extend the possible assistance.
Elaborating on his plan, Srinivasan said that a group of four members with bicycles will be assigned to collect the wastes on a door-to-door basis from 250 families in two shifts every day from respective municipal wards. The collection will be done twice a day from 7 am to 9 am and again from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm.
�Those who would be assigned to collect garbage will visit some homes on both shifts to collect the organic wastes including food waste which can be sent to the piggeries or cattle-sheds to decompose. There will be unit in-charges who have to be matriculates to monitor the proceedings of the groups, two project in-charges and one Project Head who would submit the progress report of the activities to the concerned authorities.
After proper training under the SHGs, the unemployed people belonging to BPL families of local wards can step up to work and earn a minimum of Rs 5000 per month on their own working in their own wards, Srinivasan maintained. Also, the families will be given receipts of the fees they will pay for disposing of their garbage every month, he added.
Cachar Deputy Commissioner S Vishwanathan said that Cachar will be the first district to start such a pattern of garbage collection. �We hope that there will be no waste bins across the city since the garbage will be collected from each home and shops twice a day. People must extend cooperation towards this mission,� the Deputy Commissioner said.
