Aafrin Kidwai 
Raipur Railway Station
Chhattisgarh has the highest success rate in terms of waste management among all Indian states, as per a report presented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs ministry recently in Parliament. Big states such as Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are lagging behind.
The Business Standard reports that as per the report, waste is collected on a daily basis from the doorstep in households in 93 per cent of the country’s municipal councils under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan – specifically 79,000 from over 84,000 municipal councils in urban areas.
The report states that 148,000 tonnes of waste is generated in the country every day, of which 57 per cent is either recycled or processed. The remaining waste is sent to dumping grounds or landfills in the respective states.
As per state-wise data, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka are among the 14 states in which all municipal councils have been successful in meeting the goal of collecting garbage from household doorsteps. In Chhattisgarh, 1,650 metric tonnes of waste is collected every day from each house in its 3,217 municipal councils, 90 per cent of which is processed. In Madhya Pradesh, 6,424 metric tonnes waste is collected everyday from all households in its 6,999 municipal councils of which 84 per cent is processed, whereas in Gujarat 82 per cent of the waste collected is successfully processed on a daily basis.
According to the report, the states in which the maximum amount of waste is collected have the least efficient waste management infrastructure. For instance, 23,450 metric tonnes of waste is collected every day in Maharashtra of which only 57 per cent is processed. In both Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu around 15,550 metric tonnes of waste is collected on a daily basis, of which of which 58 and 62 per cent is processed, respectively.
In West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir only nine per cent waste is processed while Meghalaya processes four percent of its collected waste. In Arunachal Pradesh, there is zero processing of garbage.
Picture Credit: AshishJaiswalRaipur, Raipur Railway Station Entrance, CC BY-SA 3.0
