Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister, announced on Thursday that 1,000 cities will be ‘3-star rubbish free’ by October 2024. Puri highlighted the progress in the garbage-free city-star rating protocol, which was launched in January 2018 to encourage competition among urban local bodies, on the occasion of International Zero Waste Day 2023 in New Delhi (ULBs). He claimed that the certification had grown at an exponential rate since its inception. Interacting with ‘Swachhta Doots’ (messengers of clean habits) from across the country, the minister congratulated them on being community change-makers.
The minister also stated that urban India has become completely ODF, with all 4,715 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) completely ODF, 3,547 ULBs ODF+ with functional and hygienic community and public toilets, and 1,191 ULBs ODF++ with complete faecal sludge management. Furthermore, waste processing in India has increased by more than fourfold, from 17% in 2014 to 75% today, according to Puri. The minister expressed confidence that the resolve and determination shown in achieving the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) targets would be multiplied manifold in the mission’s second phase, SBM-U 2.0, in which India aims to become a Garbage Free nation.
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