Urban local bodies urged to submit 'Utilisation Certificates' for realisation of Centre's funds under Mission Nirmal Bangla

Kolkata: The Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has asked urban local bodies (ULBs) that have not submitted Utilisation Certificates (UC) to the Centre to expedite the work and complete it by December 15 for realisation of huge funds under Mission Nirmal Bangla.

The meeting, chaired by minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Firhad Hakim was attended by Durga Shankar Misra, Secretary, ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Subrata Gupta, principal secretary, Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department and Debashis Sen, chairman, New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA).

During the discussion, the topic of some urban local bodies not submitting their Utilisation Certificates for Mission Nirmal Bangla came up and as a consequence, the Centre could not release the funds earmarked for the project. Hakim said that those urban local bodies who had not submitted the necessary documents yet have been urged to do so latest by December 15. Misra gave assurances that he would look into the matter.

Hakim said the discussion was held on the modern method of solid waste management which included segregation of garbage at source. The dry waste and wet waste are segregated at source. He said lengthy discussions were held as to how this new system could be implemented in the urban local bodies.

It may be mentioned that in New Town, the NKDA has introduced the system of segregation of garbage at source. The residents are keeping two buckets to put the wet waste and dry waste respectively. The wet waste is collected regularly while the dry wet is collected two days in a week. Meetings have been held between the NKDA officials and the residents to create awareness. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has also proposed to introduce this system soon.