Sort junk or lose grants: Government

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has warned local bodies that it will stop priority and incentive grants given to them if they fail to set up solid waste management plants by April 2018. The issue of garbage and solid waste management faced by cities and towns has become a major concern. “Local bodies are not doing well on this issue,” said officials of the urban development department (UDD).

To resolve the issue of solid waste management, government has made it compulsory to segregate the garbage into dry and wet waste. It has set a deadline of April 2018 and asked all local bodies to achieve at least 80 per cent of the trash management target by then. The government has now made it mandatory for all local bodies to set up composting plants for wet garbage in societies and local body areas.

The UDD issued an order stating that municipal corporations and councils who do not achieve the deadline to treat garbage and set up solid waste management units will not get priority and incentive grant of the government.

The state government is giving developmental grants for various projects and special grants for innovative schemes. The government has started giving incentive grants recently for the local bodies those who are performing well under certain parameters. But it is found that most of the local bodies are not responding over solid waste management issue.

Municipal corporations in cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivali have still not achieved the 80 per cent mark of the solid waste segregation. The main problem is in MMR region, where no place is available to create more dumping grounds and the capacity of existing dumping grounds is almost over. “So there is no alternative other than treating wet garbage and recycle dry one. If corporations and councils will not take steps in three months, we will stop the priority grants till they achieve the target,” said UDD officials.