Govt releases revised protocol of rating garbage-free cities

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Friday launched a revised protocol of rating garbage-free cities.

The revised protocol -- 'Azadi@75 Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities-Toolkit 2022' -- is aligned with priorities of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0, with higher weightage being allotted to door-to-door collection of garbage, source segregation, waste processing and dumpsite remediation.

The ministry said in a statement that after seeing the impact star rating certification has made to improve on-ground waste management scenario of the cities, the release of funds has been made conditional, subject to an urban local body (ULB) achieving at least 1-star certification.

"To ensure every ULB participates in the star rating exercise to get GFC (Garbage Free Cities) certified and get central funds, it was felt necessary to revamp the existing GFC protocol and make the assessment process simpler, while retaining its robustness, so that every ULB is motivated to apply for the GFC certification," the ministry said.

Under the revised protocols, the earlier 25 components/indicators have now been reduced to 24, of which only 16 indicators are mandatory for 1-star and 3-star levels. The remaining eight indicators are aspirational in nature, and will be relevant for 5-star and 7-star aspirants.

"The multi-step calculation of the previous GFC protocol has now been changed to a single step marking, which will help ULB to easily self-assess themselves for applying," it said.

"The entire process of applying for certification and subsequent assessment have been simplified and made completely digital, paperless and new components pertaining to IEC, capacity building, revenue from sale of waste by-products have been added to encourage cities to build an ecosystem to strengthen the waste management system," the statement said.