Chief minister Arvind kejriwal cleaning Delhi

CM announces free septic tank cleaning service

Residents will soon be able to call a helpline number; 80 trucks to be procured by DJB, says Kejriwal

Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-
wal on Friday announced the
‘Mukhyamantri Septic Tank
Safai Yojana’, which will al-
low Delhiites to avail of free
septic tank cleaning service
through a call on a helpline
number.
During a press conference
at the Delhi Secretariat, the
Chief Minister said the
scheme would see the Delhi
Jal Board (DJB) deploy 80
trucks along with trained
staff to ensure the cleaning
and maintenance of septic
tanks across the city.
The Chief Minister said the
initiative would fulfi the
three­fold objective of col-
lecting the waste from septic
tanks, ensuring safe disposal
of the waste in Sewage Treat-
ment Plants (STPs) of the go-
vernment, and deploy
trained staffwith all the safe-
ty equipment.
The scheme will also en-
sure the safety of sanitation
workers and proper septic
waste management to pre-
vent contamination of the Ya-
muna, he said, adding that
around 45 lakh citizens — in
authorised and unauthorised
colonies — reside in areas that
do not have sewer pipelines
and depend on septic tanks.

“Whereas the process to
instal sewage pipelines across
unauthorised colonies is go-
ing on, it is important to en-
sure the cleanliness of the
septictanks through safe
means. There are many plac-
es where there are no provi-
sions of sewage manage-
ment,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

‘Without valid license’

“The residents of the colo-
nies that do not have sewer
pipelines so far are using sep-
tic tanks. We often hear about
unfortunate incidents involv-
ing sanitation workers who
are deployed for the cleaning
of septic tanks. Private agen-
cies involved in the mainte-
nance and cleaning of the
tanks do not have a valid li-
cense to do so,” he added.
Such agencies carry out
maintenance activities in an
“unauthorised and illegal”
manner and do not provide
any safety equipment to the
workers and put their lives at
risk, said the Chief Minister.
The waste collected from
the septic tanks is often dis-
posed of into the drains,
causing groundwater con-
tamination and water pollu-
tion. To tackle such issues,
the Delhi government had de-
cided to initiate the schemesaid Mr. Kejriwal.
“We will try to pass the
tenders within the next
month. Around 80 trucks will
be procured by the DJB. The
residents of the colonies can
call a helpline provided by
the Delhi government for the
cleaning of the septic tanks,”
the CM said.
“A truck will be sent to the
location and the waste col-
lected from the tanks will be
delivered to the STPs. Resi-
dents can procure free ser-
vice in a legal and authorised
manner. This is a huge step in
the direction of ensuring
cleanliness and safety of Del-
hi,” he said.
DJB CEO Nikhil Kumar said
there are 1,797 unauthorised
colonies in the city out of
which 430 colonies have sew-
er pipelines. Work on laying
sewer pipelines in the other
400 colonies is in progress,
he said, adding that houses in
the rest of the colonies have septic tanks