AMRUT Orientation Programme for Elected Representatives of Jharkhand

Date: August 29, 2016

The first AMRUT Training Programme for Elected Representatives of the state of Jharkhand was held in CSE campus from 6-8 September, 2016. It was conducted by Environmental Governance team in close coordination with three other units of CSE, named Water unit, APC and Green Building unit. The three day orientation programme was attended by 17 elected representatives who were sensitised on key environmental issues and challenges the country is facing currently, policy and reforms concerning air, water and waste. The larger objective of the programme was to sensitise this group about the urban transformation envisaged under the AMRUT mission. 

The programme was an effective mix of classroom technical session, group exercises and 2 days field visits to various environmental best practices adopted in and around NCR Delhi. The idea was to showcase these best practices in waste and wastewater management, urban mobility, C&D waste to them besides imparting theoretical input. 

The programme was inaugurated by Dr. Suresh Rohilla, Programme Director of CSE with a briefing on CSE’s engagement and what AMRUT is all about. He also detailed out the expectation from the AMRUT program and also the achievement this programme can bring in.

Further, in the day, the technical session started with the lecture of Anumita Roy Choudhary, Executive Director of CSE, who discussed about the air pollution and the contribution of transportation and mobility into the air pollution and how this problem can be addressed. A class exercise was conducted on air pollution and transportation issue by APC unit. Technical session on water took place post lunch, which started with a short film on Rain Water Harvesting & Feacal Sludge. Following this, Mahreen Matto, Deputy Programme Manager of CSE detailed out about the political economy of water and waste water. This was further clubbed with a class exercises which resulted in listing of issues and challenges, the state is currently facing. The participants were taken to a small round of CSE campus to showcase the Decentralised Waste Water Treatment System (DWWTS) and the Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) system installed within the campus. The last and final session of the day was focused on waste as a whole, where in Swati Singh Sambyal, Programme Manager and Kankana Das, Deputy Programme Manager at CSE talked about the municipal solid waste and bio medical waste respectively. As part of their presentation, they shared recent experience on waste management in Ranchi and Dhanbad experienced during their recent visit.

The second and third day were kept exclusively for field visits, which included Rain Water Harvesting system at Jamia Hamdard University, Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste Plant in Burari, Cluster bus system operations and management at DIMTS on Day 2 and Non-motorised Transport, Infrastructure and Design, DWWTS at Delhi Jal Board campus in Karol Bagh, Household level waste management system at New Moti Bagh housing colony on Day 3 respectively. 

At the end of third day, a feedback session was held which was moderated by Dr. Suresh Rohila. The elected representatives gave their feedback on the overall design and relevance of entire program, wherein a mixed reaction came from the participants. When some of them expressed their willingness to replicate small scale project on solid waste management, rainwater harvesting and the ticketing system showcased during the visit at DIMTS, some had shown their apprehension on the feasibility of replication of these systems at their small towns. Suggestion also came to visit these districts, from where the participants were attended the programme. The programme ended with the certificate distribution to the participants.