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DIMAPUR — The Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) on Friday launched its project for ‘segregated door-to-door collection of household waste’ with Duncan Bosti and Riverbelt colony under ward 11 as its pilot ward.
A fleet of four micro-garbage trucks was flagged off by Advisor for Labour& Employment, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Excise, Moatoshi Longkumer who is also the chairman of District Planning and Development Board (DPDB) Dimapur.
Stating that it is a historic day for Dimapur as a new initiative is being launched; Longkumer said that three legislators from Dimapur have contributed to fund one of the trucks from the Local Area Development Programme (LADP) fund.
He remarked that several positive developments are now visible in Dimapur in terms of better roads, and better drainage.
“I believe it is the concerted effort of the DMC and other govt. departments. In our approach to clean Dimapur I would like to say that this is the collective responsibility of all the residents. Nagas lack in civic sense. We must understand that whatever we do, we have to pay for it. We should not expect others to collect your waste without payment,” he said.
He advised the citizens to inculcate civic sense so that it will take root and also implored them to live responsibly and be more hospitable, so that Dimapur becomes the most habitable city.
In his keynote address, DMC administrator W Manpai Phom said that the project was not a sudden activity but one that was conceptualised a long time ago. Stating that it is a pilot project under DMC, for which ward 11 was selected from the 23 wards in the municipal area, he said “from today I believe that the new process of waste collection will go seamlessly.”
“It is not just the responsibility of the DMC but the responsibility comes down to the household level. I request everyone one to make this pilot project successful and take this project forward,” he implored upon the citizens.
The DMC administrator lamented that the municipal was not able to achieve the targets of the Swachh Bharat Mission 1.0 as collectively, it was not able to put the targets in practice on ground level. Even the provisions of the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 were not really picked up, he maintained.
“In one of the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, it clearly points out that the responsibility lies with the citizen so let us build up on this rules as it is imperative for us to pick up on where we start,” he added.
The administrator said the council was introducing smaller vehicles for segregated waste collection as the problem with bigger vehicles is traffic congestion. Stating that the micro-garbage trucks will be more convenient during high traffic hours, he said that since it was a pilot project, the success story will depend on the citizens of Duncan Bosti and Riverbelt colony.
“The DPDB chairman sanctioned funds to buy one out of the four micro vehicles and the remaining was purchased through the 15th Finance Commission fund. We cannot confine our planning just to DMC jurisdiction but broaden it. The greater vision is eventually introducing an integrated waste management system that starts with segregation at source,” he added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, Dr. Tinojongshi Chang in his address, hoped that this pilot project will cover all the other wards with the success of Duncan Bosti and Riverbelt colony.
The DC reminded the gathering that Mahatma Gandhi had two visions— to free India and to clean India. Indian won freedom but the clean India objective is still on. “Segregation at source is very important because currently there is no such concept and we have a lot to do when it comes to cleanliness,” he said while remarking that creating a ‘Clean Dimapur’ is a shared responsibility.