By Team Mangalorean
Pics: Rajesh Shetty

MANGALORE, November 9, 2009: The Mangalore City Corporation has won the prestigious Icon award for SWM instituted by the Quality Management Institute of Jadhavpur university of West Bengal. Displaying the glittering award Mayor of Mangalore Mr. Shankar Bhat told today that “it was a result of the immaculate work put in by the officers of the Corporation and co-operation of the people of Mangalore.”
 
Addressing a press conference here today Mr. Bhat said Mangalore was chosen as the second city in the country to be named as the best city for Solid Waste Management (SWM). The award was handed over to the Commissioner of Mangalore City Corporation Dr. Vijayaprakash at Kolkata recently.
 
Mr. Bhat said that a special team had come from Delhi to assess the SWM system in Mangalore, they had spent the entire day in the SWM plant in Vamanjoor in Mangalore and found out that it was one of the finest SWM plant in the country, the same group had gone to Bangalore, Pune, Coimbatore, Chennai, Kochi, Trivandrum and many other places, but they found the SWM plant in Mangalore second only to the one in Mysore.
 
Furthering the cause of the SWM the Mangalore City Corporation Environmental engineering department has earned second place in the country in efficient management of its solid waste. The Mangalore City Corporation has gone one step ahead to make the garbage dump of the city which is situated in Vamanjoor Odour free. 

It has imported an enzyme from Mumbai entitled Fermcep which will destroy the entire odor producing substance on the surface of the dump. This was the first time in the state that this enzyme treatment has been planned Mr. Bhat added.

102 Urban Local Bodies from all over the country including Bangalore and Mumbai had participated in the meet.
 
Comparing Mangalore’s performance in SWM with that of Bangalore Mr. Bhat stated that the citizens of Mangalore have co-operated well with Mangalore City Corporation in keeping the city clean. Though only 40 percent of the houses have been covered in the Nirmala Nagara Yojana and house to house collection of segregated garbage, efforts having been stepped up to include all the houses in next two months. This will improve the garbage collection. He noted that the even BBMP was not able to cover 40 per cent of its houses under Nirmala Nagara Yojana and he himself had seen garbage being cleared only once in two days in posh areas like Dollars colony.
 
Mangalore City Corporation cleared 220 tons of garbage per day and it was expected to go upto 250 tons per day when Nirmala Nagara Yojana comes in its full bloom.  He said the Urban Development Department has approved the three package garbage clearance which will further simplify the procedure of garbage collection and also more areas will come into coverage. Mangalore was fast moving towards bin-less garbage collection and disposal system he added.

Siruguppa, Bhatkal for cleanliness

Karnataka Minister for City Development, Law and Parliamentary Affairs S Suresh Kumar in a release here, said Jadavapur University, Centre for Quality Management System in West Bengal, conducted a survey of all cities in the country and awarded Mysore as the best and Mangalore as the second best in the country.

Besides, Siruguppa Town and Bhatkal Town were identified as awards winners for cleanliness and with less than one lakh population, Mr Kumar said, adding it is an incredible achievement for Karnataka.

The minister said national recognition would encourage the State to work with renewed vigour to improve its cleanliness and waste management technology.

The Minister lauded the winners for their performances.