Centre Launches Swachh Nagar App For On-Demand Household Waste Pickup

The Centre on August 13, 2019, launched a mobile application through which people will be able to get their household waste picked up by urban municipal bodies, a move that is likely to help with the issues around solid-waste management in the country. However, users will have to pay to civic bodies to avail of the service through the Swachh Nagar app. Through this Swachh Nagar app, people will be able to place a request to have solid waste, construction and demolition waste and wet waste picked up by the local body.

States Lack Will To Manage Waste, Says SC

Earlier in December 2017, the Supreme Court has said that there is no shortage of funds under the Swachh Bharat Mission, but there is "lack" of willingness on the part of states to take positive steps in this regard. The apex court noted the submissions of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF) that there was a total outlay of Rs 36,829 crore under the mission, of which Rs 7,424 crore was made available by the Centre.

A Bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that states needed to take the issue in all seriousness, particularly in context of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The court asked the ministry to issue a communication to all the states requiring information from them about setting up of the state- level advisory body (SLAB), names of its members, number of meetings held, the decisions taken and steps taken for implementation of the 2016 rules. The Bench said state that fail to provide these details would be burdened with "very heavy costs".

"The state governments should keep in mind the fact that availability of funds is not a problem under the Swachh Bharat Mission and also keep in mind that solid-waste management is a huge problem being faced by the country at this stage," it said in a recent order, and fixed the matter for hearing on February 6 next year.

With inputs from Housing.com News