NEW DELHI: Now pay for garbage you generate as the municipal bodies can now levy user fee for solid waste management and spot fine for littering as the central government today came out with new Solid Waste Management Rules which empowers local bodies to charge waste generators.
The rules under the Environment Pollution Act shall apply to every urban local body, census towns, notified industrial townships, areas under the control of Indian Railways, airports, airbase, Port and harbour, defense establishments, special economic zones, State and Central government organizations, places of pilgrims, religious & historical importance.
The Environment Ministry has revised Solid Waste Management Rules after 16 years. The issue of collection and disposal of sanitary waste like diapers, sanitary pads and other disposal items have been addressed and they shall provide a pouch or wrapper for disposal of each napkin or diapers along with the packet of their sanitary products.
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the responsibility of generators has been introduced to segregate waste into three categories – wet, dry and hazardous Waste. Under the new rule, around 17000 municipal towns will come under its ambit.
“Waste generator will have to pay ‘User Fee’ to the waste collector and a ‘Spot Fine’ for littering and non-segregation, the quantum of which will be decided by the local bodies,” he said, adding that the government is keen on the integration of ragpickers from the informal sector to the formal sector.
Integration of waste pickers and waste dealers in the formal system should be done by state governments, said the rules.
The minister said that 62 million tonnes of waste is generated annually in the country at present and of that that only about 75-80 percent of the municipal waste gets collected and only 22-28 percent of this waste is processed and treated.
The Government has also constituted a Central Monitoring Committee under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to monitor the overall implementation of the Rules.
The e concept of partnership in Swachh Bharat has been introduced. Bulk and Institutional Generators, Market Associations, event organizersand Hotels and restaurants have been directly made responsible for segregation and sorting the waste and manage in partnership with local bodies.
The waste processing facilities will have to be set up by all local bodies having 1 million or more population within two years.