Mysuru gears up for Swachh Survekshan

With the Swachh Survekshan 2021 under progress, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) is leaving no stone unturned to regain the cleanest city award. The MCC has taken up several initiatives to bag the clean city tag.

This time, the survey will be held for three months, under three categories. Last year, the survey was held under four categories - Citizen’s Feedback, Direct Observation, Service Level Progress and certification. This time, to avoid duplication, Direct Observation is merged in Citizen’s Voice and Service Level Progress. The Swachh Survekshan will be conducted for a total of 6,000 marks.

MCC Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde urged the citizens to cooperate and participate to make Mysuru a ‘Cleanest city’. The survey has already commenced and will be done for three months, unlike one month as conducted all these years.

Under ‘Water Plus’ division, measures have been taken to utilise waste water for parks and fountains, after recycling it. In addition, the MCC council has approved to setup construction of a debris processing unit. With the two new initiatives, Mysuru will definitely score more marks, the commissioner said.

Hegde said that as the survey will be conducted for three months, there will be more pressure on the officials and no workload will be given to pourakarmikas. In the last survey, the city lost marks in citizens’ feedback. While Indore, which was the ‘Cleanest City’, secured 1,416 marks, Mysuru secured only 1,181 marks. This time, the survey for citizens’ feedback will be conducted over phone between January 1 and March 31, he said.

In 2020, 25% marks were allotted to each category. But, this time, 30% marks is reserved for citizens’ voice, 40% for Service Level Progress and 30% marks for Certification. It has to be noted that the MCC has already warned of stringent action against people defacing the city, by displaying posters, banners, and buntings illegally. In addition, the authorities also conducted drives against unscientific disposal of waste. The MCC officials have imposed fine against mobile shopkeepers for unscientific disposal of waste.

The objective of the survey is to encourage large scale citizen participation, to ensure sustainability of initiatives taken up for a garbage-free and open defecation-free city, to provide credible outcomes, which would be validated by third party certification, to institutionalize existing systems through online processes and create awareness among all sections of the society about the importance of working together to make towns and cities more habitable and sustainable.