Pb govt seeks Rs 53.67 cr from Centre for solid waste mgt

The Punjab government has urged the Centre to include three of its flagship solid waste management projects under the 'Swachh Bharat Mission' and release 20 per cent of their total cost amounting to Rs 53.67 crore, as admissible under the Clean India programme.
A request in this regard has been made in an official letter written by Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi to Union Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu, an official spokesman said here today.
"It is brought to your kind notice that Punjab has developed an end-to-end solution to manage solid waste in all Urban Local Bodies of the state," Joshi said in the letter.

He pointed out that the entire state had been divided into eight clusters for managing solid waste on scientific basis to ensure 100 per cent coverage of urban areas.
Each cluster will have integrated Solid Waste Management Project for all ULBs of that cluster, Joshi said adding that projects were structured on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for a fixed concession period of 25 years.
Out of these eight clusters, three clusters at Bathinda, Ferozepur and Jalandhar are already under implementation stage and were approved before Swachh Bharat Mission, the minister said in his letter.