Workshop held to familiarise officials with new protocol

VISAKHAPATNAM: The star rating of garbage-free cities, alongside the annual Swachh Survekshan, will foster a healthy competition among cities across the country to achieve 100% cleanliness, said JB Ravinder, a representative of the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA).
The sixth regional workshop on star rating of garbage-free cities, jointly organized by the MoHUA in collaboration with the swachha Andhra corporation, AP municipal administration and urban development and the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), was conducted at Vuda Children’s Arena on Wednesday.
Director of municipal administration K Kanna Babu launched the workshop by lightening the lamp. He spoke about the policies pertaining to financial and administrative robustness of urban local bodies.
The meet was attended by swachha Andhra corporation managing director D Muralidhar Reddy, GVMC commissioner M Hari Narayanan, Vijayawada commissioner J Nivas, Tirupati municipal commissioner V Vijaya Rama Raju and others.
The day -long workshop was attended by over 250 urban local body officials, including commissioners and officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The workshop was held to familiarize city officials and other relevant stakeholders about the newly launched star rating protocol of garbage- free cities by MoHUA that is a holistic evaluation system for the entire solid waste management value chain.
Sanghamitra Bhattacharya and Pankaj Arora from the project management unit of Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) explained the parametres of the star rating protcol. They also emphasized on the importance of public participation in making cities garbage free.