Surat: Surat receiving a five star in 'Garbage Free Cities rating' by the government has not gone down well with Opposition Congress municipal councillor Aslam Cyclewala who alleged that the ranking received by the city had been manipulated as the survey team had been informed well in advance and was conducted only around the posh areas of the city. The team did not carry out any surprise checking, he alleged.
On receiving Five Star rank for its cleanliness drive, Surat Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani gave an extensive interview to ETV Bharat in which he said the civic body’s door-to-door garbage collection drive, category-wise segregation of garbage, its processing and disposal system was being praised across the country. The city received the ‘Five Star garbage-free city’ rank because it was using scientific methods to dispose off the garbage, both wet as well as solid by recycling and developing a garden at the landfill site.
Countering the allegation of the Opposition, standing committee chairman Anil Goplani said it is wrong to do politics over the issue and it was a matter of pride for the city to receive the five star rank. The city received the five star rank, he said, because of the efforts of all the citizens.
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Surat Municipal Corporation had used an efficient system of garbage disposal based on 3 R – reduce, reuse and recycle. The Surat Municipal Corporation was implementing 100 per cent door-to-door garbage collection and its classification into dry, wet and recyclable. The recyclable waste was being converted into manure through vermiculture while waste from the vegetable market was being processed at the site. There is a separate system for the processing of bio-chemical waste. To reduce wet waste material, the civic body has also made arrangement of food bank from which needy people are being looked after.
