CMs' panel on Swachh Bharat bats for generating energy from waste

CHANDIGARH, May 19: A Chief Ministers' panel working on different aspects of Swachh Bharat Mission, which held its meeting here today, said that generating energy from waste is an important aspect of getting rid of garbage. The panel will submit a "very practical" report to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the end of next month. The Chief Ministers' sub-group headed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held a meeting here in which CMs of Maharashtra, Mizoram, Haryana, besides representatives of other seven participating states took part. Interacting with mediapersons after chairing the second meeting here, Naidu in reply to a question, said "even in power sector there are developers, who will collect all waste, segregate and then deliver to the power plant, which will then be converted to energy". He said depending on in which power plant the waste ends up like for hydro, solar, thermal etc., then tariff rate can be given accordingly. "We are going to crate sustainable models. We are going to convert garbage into energy. Even liquid waste, how to treat it, there are technologies available which can make it fit for drinking purpose also, like Singapore has shown," Naidu said. Earlier, the first meeting of the panel was held in Delhi last month while next month another meeting will be held in Bengaluru. "Today's meeting was very productive, we had three presentations by different departments of the Centre, one technical presentation was given by an expert group. " All the members gave excellent ideas on how to go about the whole thing. Stress was given not only in preparing the report but how to give practical solutions," he said. Naidu gave an example of waste to energy creation, saying in Okhla in Delhi, 20 MW power was generated from garbage."It is working very well," he said. "All over the world the same experiment they are doing, from waste to energy. In China, US, Japan, such plants are working," he further said. He also said that Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has recommended that sanitation be made a subject which is taught as part of school curriculum so that students at an early age inculcate a habit of cleanliness and keeping their surroundings clean. On waste material re-use, he said, "for this we are having some initial discussion. Even, Government of India is very keen; central regulatory commission on power sector, they are also very keen". He said that cost of per unit power generated from waste can come down significantly once the project become commercially viable.