Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s answer to Narendra Modi’s Swachh Abhiyan has finally taken off.
The Nirmal Bangla project, as she has named it, will spend around Rs 422 cr in this year alone for integrated solid waste management procedure in and around the city of Kolkata.
In fourteen towns of West Bengal, within 100 km radius of Kolkata, a massive work will be undertaken shortly.
"Tender process of these projects has already been initiated and all the urban local bodies have been instructed to create massive awareness among all stakeholders so that they can ensure segregation of waste at source, 100 per cent door-to-door collection of garbage, vibrant transport system and successful treatment of waste," said an officer of urban development department.
Last year, the government had spent more than Rs 5 crore to deal with vector related diseases in urban areas by ensuring spraying of insecticides and oil to kill mosquitoes.
In order to take beautification measures in the cities and towns of Bengal, the state government has approved Rs 456 cr this year and Rs 620 cr next year under plan budget for beautification of roads, conserving of water bodies, illumination through LED lights, high mast lights, landscapes for historic buildings, important locations, parks and so on.
“This has been done as desired by honourable chief minister of West Bengal,” the officer said, pointing the model of development of Mamata Banerjee.
The government said that in last five years, Mamata government has provided houses to around 1 lakh needy people. This year alone around 1.45 lakh houses would be built to accommodate the urban poor.
This has been a marked shift in policies from the previous left government, which almost spent 80 per cent of the budget for rural housing rather than building houses in urban areas in such huge numbers.
The money for this ambitious urban development projects would come from state budget, along with money received from finance commission. While Rs 2400 cr would come from state budget, Rs 695 cr will come from finance commission grant. The government says it would spend more once it gets the special grants from the finance commission.
