The Tamenglong district administration has decided to clean up the town area and ensure that no waste either inorganic or organic wastes are dumped at inappropriate site thereby polluting the already fragile environment. It said that organic wastes will be converted into manure by tying up with the Forest and Agriculture department.
The District Water and Sanitation Committee (DWSC) held a meeting with district deputy commissioner Armstrong Pame on Monday in view of the urgent requirement and resolved to treat the waste.
The meeting decided that all the waste collection from the District Council to the Forest Gate area shall be the responsibility of the Autonomous District Council. The number of households to be included in the stated portion shall be determined by the district council in consultation with the SDO Tamenglong, who will coordinate with chairmen/ secretaries of the wards.
All the remaining households within the headquarters area Ward I to X shall be covered by the district water and sanitation committee formed under the PHED department whereby the deputy commissioner is the chairman with executive engineers (PHED) member-secretary along with other members.
It was resolved that for collection of wastes, fixed rates will be collected. For all government offices and institutions, Rs 500 per month will be collected; for schools with hostels, Rs 500 per month will be collected; for high schools, Rs 300 monthly will be collected; for primary schools, Rs 100 will be collected; and for households, Rs 50 will be collected per month.
The rates for district council may be fixed by the Autonomous District Council. Every household will maintain two dustbins, one blue for all inorganic and green for all organic waste. Arrangement of these dustbins shall be completed within July.
It was decided that proper segregation has to be done at the household level. No waste will be collected without being segregated at the household level.
The DWSC also stated that a dumping site which has been made ready to be used at the site in Farmlane area beyond EMRS school campus will be utilised. It will be the responsibility of the committee in coordination with the ADC Tamenglong to ensure that proper arrangement for waste dumping and segregation is done.
The committee also resolved that no waste will be dumped into the river directly as this will pollute the river further. Waste segregation will be done at the site, further segregating paper, plastic, iron and organic waste. Organic waste shall be converted into manure by tying up with the Forest and Agriculture department.
The DWSC decided that executive engineer, PHED will immediately initiate the steps to construct a working shed for the sanitation workers at the site at the earliest. This collection of waste shall immediately commence from August onward. The revenue generated out of this will be utilised for the purpose of payment of honorarium to the sanitation workers under DWSC.
The BDO Tamenglong will coordinate with the ward chairman or secretaries to identify at least three-five job card holders who can assist in this waste collection effort. The job card holders may carry out this duty as a part of their NREGS work as sanitation is a part of permissible work.
Every participating household (institutions) will have to coordinate with the authority concerned to ensure timely payment so that these efforts are a successful one to ensure that the town is clean and the fragile environment protected.
The VWSCs of each Ward (Colony) will impose appropriate fines on violators. Fines imposed will be retained by the VWSC. Once the success of this implementation is seen, it will be slowly extended to other subdivisions and villages.
