Mayor suspects foul play in Swachh Bharat rankings

 Mayor M J Ravikumar, on Friday, alleged prejudicial interests and politics in selecting the ‘Cleanest City’ in the country.

During a press conference, organised at Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) office, here, the Mayor questioned, “How Indore, which was in the 149 and 25th place in 2014 and 2016 respectively, could make it to top slot in such a short span.”

Mysuru city, which was awarded Cleanest city twice, has slipped to the fifth place even after fulfilling all norms as per the Union Ministry of Urban Development and securing more marks.

“The Quality Council of India (QCI), which conducted the survey in January and February, under Swacch Bharat Mission, used to announce the results in March. But, this time, the results were delayed by two months. Many cities in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are among the top 50 cleanest cities as per the survey. How is it possible,” he questioned.

It may be mentioned that Gujarat has a maximum of 12 cities among the top 50 cleanest cities, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 11 and Andhra Pradesh eight cities.

The Mayor alleged that negligence of former commissioner of MCC C G Betsurmath is also responsible for the loss. After Mysuru received the Clean City tag in 2016, the then commissioner and a few officials did not concentrate on works for six months.

Betsurmath also delayed floating of tender for the construction of 425 individual toilets. The city lost 40 marks for not reaching the target, he said.

MCC Commissioner G Jagadeesh said, though the city bagged the Clean City tag twice, there was no detailed project report (DPR). If the new DPR is approved, 500 civic workers will be regularised, he said.