With fake pictures, civic body app claims Gurugram clean
GURUGRAM: The Swachh Map app, launched by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) in October 2016, has been found to be using fake images to notify users that places marked as dirty have been cleaned.
HT uploaded 13 pictures of different garbage piles in five areas on the app on July 9. One of those spots was marked as clean by the MCG on July 10. The app uploaded pictures of six ‘clean’ spots on July 12. “Your reported dirty place is cleaned now. Thank us by tweeting about it,” the app notification read. HT revisited those spots and found the garbage right where it was.
The app, first launched in Bhopal in January 2016, was adopted in Gurugram on October 2 to make the civic body more accountable and let residents report issues such as garbage, potholes, unclean toilets, sewage leakage and open defecation.
Other users also complained about the fake images. “I have been reporting about a garbage dump for over a year. They either ignore the complaint or upload some other picture. I have told the MCG officials about this but to no avail,” Vibha Batra, a resident of Sector 30, said.
HT complained about garbage in locations such as Sector 50 near Nirvana Country, Nirvana Road (The Close South, Sector 50), Sushant Lok 2 (Sector 55), Sushant Lok 3 (Sector 57), Sector 44 and Sector 30. In the first 24 hours, a phone call from the Swachh officials came (on July 10), asking about the exact location of one of the complaints (Sector 57). After a while, the app showed a notification that the place had been cleaned and a photo was uploaded as well. On verification, HT found garbage was much less there.
On July 12, the app sent a notification that six of the places we complained about had been cleaned. Photos were uploaded of all six locations, and the areas were marked ‘clean’ on the map.
On verification, HT found that all places marked clean were still dirty and images of other spots had been uploaded. The images were close-up shots of a concrete ground, with no discernible way of verifying the area.
Yashpal Yadav, MCG commissioner, said, “People throw garbage even after a place is cleaned. So, it is a continuous process. The senior sanitary inspector is in charge of it and he has supervisors to monitor the process.”yadav did not respond after being sent the fake images which were uploaded on the app.
Vijay Kumar, one of the creators of the app that was sponsored by Intel CSR, said, “We are going to add the phone numbers of supervisors on the app. Fake images are a legitimate concern.”
He said every 48 hours, the complaint gets escalated if not addressed by the supervisor of the ward. If the supervisor does not address the complaint, it is forwarded to the sanitary inspector, chief sanitary inspector, health officer, joint commissioner, MCG and urban local body before being sent to the CM.