A two-star illusion about clean Bengaluru

Swachh Survekshan, the annual survey that ranks cities on cleanliness, kicked off on Friday and will go on until January 31.

Starting this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is rating cities on a seven-star basis.

The BBMP has declared Bengaluru a ‘two-star garbage-free city’ ahead of the survey, although doubts persist whether it meets the one-star rating at all.

Under the new rating system, each municipal body must fulfil certain conditions to earn maximum stars for its cleanliness.

Some of the key components of the rating methodology are the door-to-door collection of garbage, segregation of waste at source, cleaning of stormwater drains and waterbodies and visible beautification of the city.

To attain one-star rating, urban local bodies must achieve at least 60% of the door-to-door collection, 25% of segregation at source, clean stormwater drains and waterbodies and enforce strict disposal system of bulk waste generators and levy penalties or spot fines on litterers.

While the BBMP has attained almost 35% of segregation of waste at source and fulfils the door-to-door collection criteria for the first star, it lags behind in enforcing the strict disposal of waste from bulk generators and ensuring cleanliness from stormwater drains and water bodies in the city.

While the BBMP has not been able to clean all stormwater drains and waterbodies, it’s certainly trying to beautify Bengaluru by ridding it of flex banners for now.

For a two-star rating, the criteria are 80% of the door-to-door collection of garbage and a full ban on plastic

“We are planning a lot of clean-up drives across the city and are also involving citizens. We are cleaning up the Windsor Manor bridge this weekend along with citizens and are also sweeping public, commercial and residential areas,” said Randeep D, additional commissioner, (admin), BBMP.

Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner, health and solid waste management, BBMP, said: “Some of us had requested the ministry that the rating system should consider factors such as the geographical area of cities, as each of them has their own issues to deal with. For example, Mysuru and Bengaluru cannot be weighed on the same scale as both have different criteria. Bengaluru is huge and requires a different kind of approach.”