As Panchkula works to raise its ranking in the Swachh Survekshan 2023, the lack of a garbage processing facility is causing worry. The city has made strides in garbage collection and cleanliness, but still has work to do in areas like garbage processing, grievance redress, and road and public restroom cleanliness. The municipal corporation is constructing a waste processing plant and has temporarily moved garbage to Ambala for processing. In the upcoming study, the city hopes to move up to the top-50.

Even though Panchkula started shipping trash to Patvi, Ambala, earlier this year, the lack of a facility for processing waste worries the municipal corporation, which is hoping to perform well in the Swachh Survekshan 2023.

In 2022, Panchkula placed 86th out of 382 cities, a minor increase from its 99th place finish in 2021. The city of Panchkula fluctuated in the rankings, with rankings of 56 in 2020, 71 in 2019, 142 in 2018, and 211 in 2017.

The success of door-to-door collection of segregated garbage, cleanliness of market and residential areas, sewers, water bodies, and daily sweeping in residential areas are all factors that contributed to the little increase.

Municipal commissioner Sachin Gupta expressed his desire to be among the top 50, saying, “We have taken initiatives to improve in areas in which we were found wanting.”

The need for a garbage processing facility, a grievance redressal system, and clean public restrooms and roadways stand out among the areas that may use improvement.
Transported trash to Patvi; continue to set up plant

Around 70,000 houses in Panchkula produce 200 tonnes of trash per day, of which 60% is dry and the remaining 40% is moist.

The MC devised a temporary plan to move trash all the way to Ambala’s Patvi for processing. Residents of the nine sectors in the trans-ghaggar area, as well as Moginand, Bana, and Madanpur villages, had been protesting and demanding that the rubbish from Jhuriwala dumping ground be removed when the decision was made.

The commissioner also established a deadline of December 31 for the removal of the 2.5 lakh tonnes of legacy rubbish from Sector 23 and Jhuriwala, which had access to the disposal site until July 2021.

In Sector 23, two machines are being put up for the bio-mining of legacy trash; work is expected to be finished by March 2024. By disposing of 60,000 metric tons (MT) of waste per month, the program hopes to dispose of 3 lakh MT of waste.

Source- Hindustan times
Link- https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/panchkula-bets-on-stop-gap-measures-cleaning-drive-to-improving-swachh-survekshan-ranking-101693005918759.html