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  Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities- Toolkit 2022      

30th December, 2021

Figure 1: No Copyright Infringement Intended

Context:

  • On the eve of “Good Governance Day”, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India today launched the ‘Azadi@75 Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities- Toolkit 2022'.
  • For achieving this vision, a key objective under SBM-U 2.0 is to make every urban local body at least 3-star Garbage Free as per the Star Rating protocol.

About the Initiative:

  • The star rating protocol was launched by the central government in January 2018 to institutionalize a mechanism for cities to achieve garbage free status leading to a higher degrees of cleanliness.
  • The protocol includes components such as cleanliness of drains & water bodies, plastic waste management, managing construction & demolition waste which are critical drivers for achieving garbage free cities.
  • It is one of the various initiatives which intends to make Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) as a successful project.

Parameters:

  • It is based on 12 parameters which follow a SMART framework – Single metric, Measurable, Achievable, Rigorous verification mechanism and Targeted towards outcomes.
  • The star rating conditions have been designed in a way to enable cities to gradually evolve into a model (7-star) city,with progressive improvements in their overall cleanliness.
  • It is a comprehensive framework that assesses cities across 23 different components of Solid Waste Management (SWM) and is graded based on overall marks received.

Monitoring the Cities

  • To ensure that the Protocol has a SMART framework, the MoHUA has developed a three-stage assessment process.
  • In the first stage, ULBs populate their progress data on the portal along with supporting documents within a particular timeframe.
  • The second stage involves a desktop assessment by a third-party agency selected and appointed by MoHUA.
  • Claims of cities that clear the desktop assessment are then verified through independent field-level observations in the third stage.

Significance:

  • The performance of cities under the Star Rating Protocol is crucial as it carries significant weightage for their final assessment in Swachh Survekshan.
  • It also ensures certain minimum standards of sanitation through a set of prerequisites defined in the framework.
  • Since the rating is conducted at a city level, it makes the process easier to implement and helps the cities incrementally improve their overall cleanliness.

About SBM-U 2.0 mission

  • It seeks to make all cities ‘Garbage Free’.
  • It also seeks to ensure grey and black water management across the cities that are not covered under AMRUT.
  • Mission will focus on source segregation of solid waste by utilizing the principles of 3Rs that is “Reduce, reuse, recycle”.