Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen is a flagship programme of Government of India under which UT of J&K has achieved the milestone of declaring over 1000 villages as ODF Plus. There are three stages of declaring the village as ODF Plus as per Government of India Guidelines. J&K UT has 822 villages as ODF Plus in the Aspiring Category, 163 Villages in the Rising category & 23 villages in the Model category.
Director, Rural Sanitation, J&K Charandeep Singh said that most of these villages have sustained their ODF Plus status and have put in place either a Solid or a liquid Waste Management System and the achievement is a big leap towards making villages cleaner, greener and healthier.
Phase 2nd of SBMG focuses on dealing with all types of wastes whether liquid or solid i.e generated from Rural Households and commercial establishments. Solid Waste Management under the programme deals with the procedures related to Bio-degradable Solid Waste segregation, collection transportation and its scientific disposal whereas Grey Water Management deals with effective utilization of Grey Water through multiple techniques such as Soak Pits/ Leach Pits/ Magic Pits.
While the processing systems are being put in place, the department is leaving no stone unturned to ensure an effective Door-to Door collection mechanism is established in all the villages. The aim of this initiative is to ensure that segregated waste is collected from households and is processed in a scientific manner so that it does not become a health hazard for locals and makes the villages visually clean and beautiful.
The work on segregation sheds and Plastic Waste Management Units is also being initiated by the department for further processing Plastic Waste. The achievement is an important step towards re-enforcing the commitment of the Government to promote a scientific sanitation system and improve the quality of life of the rural citizens and fulfill a dream of Sampoorna Swachh and Swasth Bharat.