The Delhi Cantonment Board has stepped up waste management and beautification efforts as it seeks to improve its position in the ‘Swachchh Bharat’ ranking to unseat Mysuru, which had topped it last year.
“We have initiated several measures to spruce up and beautify the cantonment area and are aiming for a zero-waste policy for proper waste management. We are also working on rejuvenation of water bodies,” CEO, Delhi Cantonment Board, B Reddy Sankar Babu said.
The Delhi Cantonment area is spread over 10,791.88 acres and, as per 2011 Census, its population stands at 1,10,351. The DCB was ranked 15th in the ‘Swachchh Bharat’ survey released in August last year finishing one position ahead of posh New Delhi Municipal Council. Greater Mumbai stood at a lowly 140, while the Municipal Corporation of Delhi figured at 398.
“As part of our policy, horticulture waste is being processed into bio-fuel and liquid waste would be separately processed for which plants are being set up. We have over 50 parks and gardens under our jurisdiction and in the past few months we have also installed 33 iron-made gazebos across the area for shelter and ornamental purposes,” Babu said.
The DCB collects 70 tonnes of garbage from 17,700 houses every day. It has installed 45 fixed dustbins and 400 mobile dustbins for waste collection besides running 16 vehicles for it.
As part of its sanitation drive, the Board had recently appointed lok Sabha MP Meenakshi lekhi as its ‘Swachchh Bharat’ brand ambassador and launched a mobile app ‘Samadhan’ to address sanitation grievances.