Waste management project hits political roadblock in Patiala

The failure on part of the Patiala Municipal Corporation to implement the solid waste management project in the city, despite being open defecation-free city, pushed Patiala to 304 on the list of 467 cities in the country and eight among 16 cities in the survey conducted by the Union Urban Development Ministry. The solid waste management plant will recycle solid waste of 26 municipalities from Barnala, Sangrur and Patiala districts, apart from the 240-MT waste generated in Patiala city every day. The government is yet to take a call whether the plant that will cost Rs 150 crore will recycle fuel or power from the waste. Patiala is yet to make operational the solid waste management plant, despite a 20-acre site finalised for the project in Dudarh village as political lobbies are at work to ensure that the project is not finalised. Cabinet minister Surjit Singh Rakhra is now backing the lobby that opposes the project as Dudarh now falls in his Samana constituency, followng recent delimitation. Sources say barring Bathinda, where the project is functional due to strong commitment of the ruling Badal family, all other cities are politically divided as leaders from the ruling party do not want this project to be started for one reason or the other. “I will find another site for the project as people in these villages do not want the project to be set up there,” claims Rakhra. “The government was not against the project but people’s voice against the project could not be suppressed. “We have just one dumping site for waste though our waste collecting has improved as we added 200 employees to collect waste from the city houses, the management of this waste is possible when the solid waste management project is started,” claims city Mayor Amrinder Bazaz.