SWACHH SURVEY: BMC TO USE APP, UNDERGROUND BINS TO UP RANK

MUMBAI: Underground bins, garbage-free streets, increasing house-to-house collection, celebrity endorsement and effective implementation of plastic ban are on the to-do-list of the civic body to improve its cleanliness ranking this year.

To encourage cities to improve urban sanitation, citizen participation and awareness towards cleanliness, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) launched the ‘Swachh Survekshan’ survey in 2016 which ranks cities on the basis of cleanliness. In 2018, Mumbai ranked 18 among the list of India’s cleanest cities and was declared as the cleanest state capital by the survey.

To improve the services, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will install four underground bins as a pilot project. The aim is to get rid of open garbage bins and the odour. The BMC has also prepared a draft proposal to collect wet waste from housing societies for a fee. Other measures include development of mobile application for complaints, replacement of open and large garbage bins with stationary compactors. Since July, BMC has replaced 36 large roadside bins although the target was 74. Besides this, BMC will re-appoint the same social media agency to ask citizens to download the Swachhata application. It has also kicked off its Twitter campaign asking people to vote. It also aims to conduct ward-level competitions and give certificates to the cleanest hospitals, restaurants, hotels, markets.

In the survey’s third, there are equal marks (1,250) for all four parameters of the survey — direct observation, service-level progress, certification and citizen feedback. The BMC will focus on its service-level progress, the parameter in which it had scored the lowest. This will mean a renewed focus on garbage transportation, collection and disposal and waste composting. Of the 1,400 points up for grabs for this parameter in the 2018 survey, Mumbai scored 904 against Navi Mumbai’s 1,216. “The competition has become tougher. We will concentrate on garbage disposal and processing, and feedback,” said Kiran Dighavkar, nodal officer, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.