Srinagar: Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to allocate funds from Panchayat grants for the operation and maintenance of solid waste management in the villages of the Union Territory to keep them clean.
This decision was taken after complaints were received that despite the government spending crores of rupees on sanitation, the Swachh Bharat Mission was failing.
ETV Bharat learned from several officials in the Finance and Rural Development departments that the government has approved the allocation of 10 percent of the funds from Panchayat grants. Government sources said that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will announce this approved proposal during the budget session of the Legislative Assembly in Jammu on February 2. Since the implementation of solid waste management systems across Jammu and Kashmir and the entire country, the Finance and Rural Development Department (RDD), in collaboration with the Rural Sanitation Department (RDS), has spent a significant amount of money on creating solid waste management assets in 287 blocks comprising 4,291 panchayats in the Union Territory.
According to officials from the Finance and Rural Development Department and the Rural Sanitation Department, 113 Plastic Waste Management Units (PMUs) have been established in Jammu and Kashmir, of which 32 are reported to be operational. The Finance and Rural Development Department also claims to have procured 1,453 vehicles for solid waste transportation, including tricycles (637), e-rickshaws (458), and motorized vehicles (358).
It has also constructed 2,800 segregation sheds across the Union Territory. According to official information, each segregation shed was constructed at a cost of Rs 7 lakh, while each vehicle was purchased for Rs 11 lakh. However, a consistent lack of funding has proven to be a major obstacle in operating and maintaining this vast infrastructure.
The Union Territory’s Rural Development Ministry has now proposed to allocate funding from the grants received by the Panchayati Raj Institutions. Officials stated that each panchayat in Jammu and Kashmir receives an annual grant of Rs 23 lakh. Ten percent of this amount will now be utilized for solid waste management. An official familiar with the decision said, “Once these funds are released, they will be used for waste collection, user charges for waste disposal, and for managing human resources and other logistics.”
Officials said the proposal was put forward by the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Javed Dar, who, after several meetings with the Rural Sanitation Department, realized that the sanitation system in rural areas could not be sustained without continuous support.
While municipalities in towns and municipal corporations in Jammu and Srinagar cities were maintaining sanitation, this mechanism was absent in rural areas and was initiated through the Swachh Bharat Mission. Minister Dar told ETV Bharat, “Rural “In the regions, we will have to maintain a system for sanitation,” he said, although he declined to comment further.
Official estimates indicate that Jammu and Kashmir generates 1,500 tons of solid waste daily, including plastic, paper, glass, metal, kitchen waste, and construction debris, encompassing waste from the two municipal corporations of Srinagar and Jammu, and 76 other municipalities in the cities.
The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) generates 525 tons of solid waste daily, while the Jammu Municipal Corporation generates 374 tons. The other municipalities generate 603 tons of solid waste every day. The amount of waste generated in rural areas is not estimated.
Raja Muzaffar Bhat, a social activist from Kashmir, said that the solid waste generated and collected in Jammu and Kashmir is either dumped directly into open landfills by the government, or people throw it along roadsides and near water bodies.
A study by the government’s Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee also stated that only 36 percent of the 1,500 tons of solid waste is treated, and the remaining 64 percent remains unaccounted for. The study said that a large portion of the solid waste in Jammu and Kashmir lies untreated at large dump sites or in public places, posing a threat to public health and the environment in the Union Territory.
According to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, waste must be segregated at the source and managed scientifically to prevent environmental pollution. Social activists have welcomed the proposal to fund the scientific treatment and management of solid waste generated in the villages of the Union Territory through Panchayat grants.
