The Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Nirmal Singh today replying to a question of Vibodh Gupta informed that the government has adopted cluster based approach for management of solid waste in urban areas of the state under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) as there is paucity of land in various areas.The Deputy Chief Minister informed that the urban towns have been divided into 14 clusters and the DPRs for 11 clusters have been received. He further added that the preparation of DPRs for other clusters is under process through the consultants empanelled by the Government of India. He said that these projects are under technical and financial appraisal and once these appraisals are done, the projects shall be put to tenders. Dr. Nirmal Singh further informed that Rs 332.7 crore were released during the last three years for Solid Waste Management (SWM) in the state of which Rs 61.4 crore were utilized.
The Deputy Chief Minister informed that a Solid Waste Management project worth Rs 1.34 crore was sanctioned under urban infrastructure Development Scheme for Small & Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) in the year 2007-08 against which Rs 67 lakh were released for Rajouri and Poonch districts, adding that no funds have been utilized so far due to non-availability of land. He said that few chunks of land were identified for establishment of SWM project for these twin districts but these sites were not found viable and rejected by State Pollution Control Board. Dr. Nirmal Singh further informed the House that Deputy Commissioner Rajouri has identified 92 Kanals of land for SWM and the projects are now proposed to be executed under SBM as UIDSSMT has come to an end. He said that the DPR has been prepared at a cost of Rs 9.97 crore and the same is currently under Technical and Financial appraisal. The DPRs for Poonch town costing Rs 5.34 crore has been prepared, but the suitable land is not available, he added.Yasir Reshi raised supplementary to the main question.