The government will finalise comprehensive rules next month to deal with the pressing problem of waste management. Addressing a function on Smart Cities in New Delhi today, Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar said the cities have been converted into slums in the last seven decades and it is challenge to transform them into smart cities.<br/><br/>He said the country's single most failure after independence has been in the area of urban and town planning. The Minister said this planning failure has to be corrected if the goal of smart cities is to be achieved.<br/><br/>Noting that more than 80 per cent of the sewage goes into rivers as treatment plants are not functioning, Mr. Javadekar said the government will make sure that the contractor who builds the plant is given the responsibility to operate it.