Failure to build household toilets costs Mysuru dear: Mayor

City of Palaces loses top rank to Indore; slips to fifth slot

Mysuru city, which was touted as being the front-runners for the position of being the cleanest city of India and was confident of retaining the title for the third consecutive year, finished fifth after losing to Indore in the Swachh Survekshan 2017.

“Mysuru slipped to fifth position from first rank as the city failed to construct the targeted 425 individual household toilets,” Mysuru City Corporation Mayor M J Ravi Kumar said here on Thursday.  The Mayor received the award from Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. He told DH that despite making all efforts to build individual toilets, the target was not met with. In the coming days we will meet the target on building individual toilets, he said.

Mysuru had topped the Clean City list in surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016. “Though the city ranking slipped, it still scored over 87%. This time, however, other cities like Indore, Bhopal and Visakhapatnam performed better,” the Mayor said.

 Mysuru secured 1743.36 points out of 2000. Of the targeted 425 toilets, 250 toilets have been constructed and the remaining will be built at the earliest, he said.

Though the city scored well in municipal documentations and independent observation, it scored less (449 out of 500) in the citizen feedback section as the residents of the city did not participate despite requests from the MCC authorities, the Mayor said.

The Mayor said that the Rs 5,300 earmarked for building individual household toilets was insufficient. He said, “We have requested the state government for additional funds and the government has promised to allocate the same.”

He said the city will also expedite remediation of solid waste so as to regain its position on top the next time.

Observation made on Mysuru city in survey
Building of community and public toilet not satisfactory
Door-to-door waste collection system introduced in entire city
Sweeping taking place in more than 75% of notified commercial areas twice a day
Sweeping taking place at night and on Sundays also
Litter bins available on both the sides of roads in 75% of commercial areas
City has waste-to-compost plant with efficiency of more than 80%
City declared as open defecation-free
DH News Service