The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs announced a new category of awards titled ‘Prerak Dauur Samman’ as part of Swachh Survekshan 2021. Swachh Survekshan, conducted by MoHUA since 2016, is the world’s largest urban sanitation and cleanliness survey. The primary goal of Swachh Survekshans is to encourage large scale citizen participation and create awareness amongst all sections of society.
Prerak Daur Samman
- The Prerak Dauur Samman has a total of five additional sub- categories -Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze), Aarohi (Aspiring) – with the top three cities being recognized in each.
- In a departure from the present criteria of evaluating cities on ‘population category’, this new category will categorize cities on the basis of six select indicator wise performance criteria which are as follows:
- Segregation of waste into wet, dry and hazard categories
- Processing capacity against wet waste generated
- Processing and recycling of wet and dry waste
- Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste processing
- Percentage of waste going to landfills
- Sanitation status of cities
GFC Star Rating
The Ministry has also launched the protocol for star rating of garbage free cities. It has been designed to both help cities assess their progress while encouraging them to move towards a better rating.
- Garbage free status means that at any point of time in the day, no garbage or litter is found in any public, commercial or residential locations (including storm drains and water bodies) or in the city (except in litter bins or transfer stations).
- Further, 100% of waste generated is scientifically managed, all legacy waste has been remediated and scientifically managing its municipal solid waste, plastic waste and construction & demolition waste.
- The star rating conditions are based on 25 key parameters across the solid waste management spectrum.
- Cities are required to carry out self-assessment and self-verification for achieving a certain star rating.
- This self-declaration will be further verified through an independent third-party agency appointed by MoHUA for 1-star, 3-star, 5-star and 7-star garbage free ratings.
Mandatory Parameters
- Door to door collection
- Segregation at source
- Sweeping of public, commercial and residential areas
- Litter bins and storage bins
- Waste processing-wet and dry waste
- Grievance redressal
Essential Parameters
- Bulk waste generators compliance
- Penalty/ spot fines
- Segregation at city level
- User charges
- Plastic ban
- Scientific landfill
- Water bodies and storm water drain
- Screening of nallahs
Desirable Parameters
- Sustainability
- On site wet waste processing
- Dump site remediation
- C&D waste segregation, processing and recycling
Source: PIB & The Hindu
