NEW DELHI: Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday announced that 1,000 cities are targeted to become ‘3-star garbage free’ by October 2024. Speaking on the occasion of International Zero Waste Day 2023 in New Delhi, Puri highlighted the progress in the garbage-free city-star rating protocol, launched in January 2018 to encourage competition among urban local bodies (ULBs). He said the certification had increased exponentially since its inception. Interacting with the ‘Swachhta Doots’ (messenger of clean habits) from across the country, the minister congratulated them for being change-makers in their community.
The minister further informed that urban India has become Open Defecation Free (ODF), with all 4,715 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) completely ODF, 3,547 ULBs are ODF+ with the functional and hygienic community and public toilets and 1,191 ULBs are ODF++ with complete faecal sludge management.
Further, waste processing in India has gone up by over four times from 17 per cent in 2014 to 75 per cent today, added Puri.
“This has been aided through 100 per cent door-to-door waste collection in 97 per cent wards and source segregation of waste being practised by citizens across almost 90 per cent wards in all ULBs in the country,” he said.
The minister expressed confidence that the resolve and determination shown in achieving the targets of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) would be amplified manifold in the second phase of the mission --SBM-U 2.0--, where India aims to become a Garbage Free nation.