Changing the face of Bidar

It has been named the 22nd cleanest city in the country

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NABARD recognises Bidar as model SHG district

The town generates 40 tonnes of garbage

every day

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hygienic:The imported vacuum suction sweeper of the Bidar CMC

Bidar:How did Bidar, that was considered a dirty place three years ago, earn the distinction of being the 22 {+n} {+d} cleanest city in the country? Innovative ideas to achieve cleanliness, people’s participation, and a responsive administration have helped the city achieve it.

Three years ago, there garbage was strewn on the streets and drains were overflowing. There was no concept of door-to door collection of garbage and there were no garbage dumping sites.

However, a coordinated effort by the district administration, the CMC, NGOs and SHGs ensured that Bidar is a much cleaner city now. In the first ever National City Rating by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, the tiny town has beaten cities such as Udupi, Belgaum, Bellary, Tumkur, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad.

The Union Government’s benchmarks were keeping the city free from open defecation; universal access to toilets for all, including the poor; elimination of manual scavenging; wastewater treatment; solid waste and storm water and recycling or reuse of treated wastewater, to ensure improved public health outcomes and environmental well-being.

Bidar has scored on three important areas — primary collection of garbage from houses, hygienic transportation of garbage and sanitary filling in landfill sites. Use of hi-tech machinery for cleaning of roads, drains, night soil pits and lifting and transporting garbage containers has helped.

“Nabard has recognised Bidar as a model SHG district. We decided to make use of it and we outsourced garbage collection and some other specified tasks to SHGs. It has been a huge success,” says Bidar CMC environmental engineer Abhay Kumar Habib. NGOs helped them choose SHGs. Women members of SHGs go door-to-door to collect garbage. SHGs were given 25 auto tippers on subsidy. This ensured that primary collection of garbage was complete within 35 hours. SHGs are also in-charge of cleaning drains, roads and footpaths.

The garbage is stored in dustbins placed in every ward. A trash truck picks up the containers and brings them to a site within the city. Two compactors pack garbage from 20 containers into one truck, reducing the need for movement of trucks.

Bidar generates around 40 tonnes of garbage everyday. The CMC has long-term plans to segregate this garbage and manufacture manure. “Now we are using sanitation fills to prepare manure. We plan to start harvesting very soon,” Commissioner S.R. Garwad said. “In a few months, we will distribute separate garbage bins for dry and wet waste to every household to segregate degradable and non-degradable garbage at the primary level. This will make manure production easier,” he said.

“The journey to fame has been hard and slow. But we achieved it with the cooperation of council members, NGOs and SHGs,” Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta said. “We were helped by the Backward Regions Grant Fund of the Union Government. We could buy 19 vehicles and other high tech equipment costing around Rs. 2.5 crore using the grant,” he said. Three years ago, Bidar had three tractors and two small trucks. Now, it has 40 containers, four dumper placers, 30 auto tippers, a nala cleaning machine, an earthmover, 20 mobile toilets, a multi purpose jetting unit that cleans roads and underground drains, and a vacuum suction sweeping machine.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/22/stories/2010052264020900.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu

Health camp to be held in Bidar on March 23

BIDAR, India: A mega health camp under the Vajpayee ArogyaSri Yojana, that provides free treatment to poor patients at super-speciality hospitals, will be held at the Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences here on March 23.

Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta said here on Saturday that specialists from more than 45 super-speciality hospitals in the State would participate. These hospitals would also install state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment in stalls allotted to them at the venue for the purpose of screening.

On the demand for empanelment of super-speciality hospitals in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, under the scheme as they were closer to Bidar district, Mr. Gupta said a proposal in this regard had been sent to the State Government and the ArogyaSri Yojana Trust for approval.

While patients who required minor treatment would be treated at local hospitals, those requiring special attention and surgeries would be referred to super-speciality hospitals. The ArogyaSri Yojana Trust would bear medical expenses of up to Rs. 2 lakh on each patient, and they would also be reimbursed expenses incurred towards travelling to these hospitals. Mr. Gupta said instructions had been issued to Health Department officials to screen patients belonging to Below the Poverty Line category and refer them to the mega health camp. “We expect more than 2,000 patients for the camp,” he added. Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) had also been directed to identify patients suffering from serious diseases in rural areas and bring them to the health camp with necessary documents such as BPL cards and health records. “The activists will be suitably rewarded for their work,” he added.

Mr. Gupta also advised patients from BPL families who wished to participate in the health camp to first get themselves screened in Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres or taluk government hospitals and get referral chits from the doctors there so that testing at the camp was made easier. He clarified that all diagnostic tests at the camp would be done free of cost. The district administration had also arranged for free lunch for all participating patients.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/14/stories/2010031451800300.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu