Venkaiah reviews cleanliness in Delhi

Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday urged the Delhi government and the municipal bodies to step up systemic efforts to make substantial difference to sanitation in the national capital through effective coordination.

The minister for urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation also reviewed at length the performance under the Swachh Bharat mission in Delhi.

"The public perception about cleanliness in the national capital is still adverse and needs to be changed at the earliest," Naidu informed the top brass of the Delhi administration.

He urged the municipal commissioners to ensure proper deployment and monitoring of 65,000 sanitation workers, saying the output was not commensurate with the number.

Officials informed Naidu that due to non-availability of land in unauthorised colonies and slum clusters, the municipal bodies were focusing on construction of community and public toilets instead of constructing individual household toilets.

Naidu suggested to the chief secretary to set up a committee to survey such areas for availability of land for proceeding further.

The minister also suggested to the chief secretary to examine the Japanese model of burning municipal solid waste without environmental consequences in view of limited availability of land for dumping such waste.

On Naidu's suggestion, DMRC and NDMC agreed to consider setting up a Waste to Energy Plant.

The minister asked DDA to examine entrusting maintenance of major parks to Resident Welfare Associations as guardians.

Officials of various departments of the Delhi government, municipal bodies, Delhi Cantonment, DDA, DMRC, railways, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Police and CPWD attended the meeting.