Ahmedabad civic body chooses Indore model for waste management

Ahmedabad citizens need to follow stricter rules including making them segregate their domestic waste. If they do not comply, the door-to-door collection vans of the municipal sanitation workers will be refusing to collect the society’s garbage. The municipal commissioner, Lochan Sehra who has just recently been appointed, in preliminary meetings with health and solid waste management teams expressed he wants to implement the solid waste management model of Indore city in Ahmedabad city. The civic bodies want to make Ahmedabad free from the ‘visible garbage’. Similar to the Indore Municipal Corporation, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had hired 500 sanitation squad members for training residents and spreading awareness within fixed pockets. However, the efforts failed to pay off. A senior AMC official said that the combined efforts of 11,000 sanitation workers, out of which 80% are women living within 1 kilometer of their service areas managing their work and homes. He further said that sufficient manpower, staff capacity building, and equipment acquisition like separated garbage tippers are important features of the Indore model. Along these, there are other important things such as proper segregation of recyclable waste, firm administrative control, and political support. According to a popular Indore saying the citizens are more feared of yellow garbage patrol vehicles than police vehicles. The daroga-jis or the sanitation inspectors in the patrol vehicles have the ability to fine the people creating litter from Rs 100 to Rs 1 lakh. The AMC is planning to run similar garbage patrol jeeps in the city. The Sanitation Satyagraha of Indore city began in 2015 with a PIL. Image Source