Public loos is new mantra
GHMC on a building spree, to score high in Swachh Survekshan survey
Wondering why the GHMC has suddenly woken up to the need for building public toilets and is knocking on doors to plead for segregation of wet and dry household waste? The answer is that it wants to score high in the 2017 Swachh Survekshan survey of 500 cities and the largest number of points is reserved for these two important components.
Solid waste management holds 40 points and public toilets 30, and both are self-assessed by the GHMC. The municipal corporation has been vigorously working to score high on these two components. It has cleverly managed to get 350 ‘new’ public toilets by asking city petrol bunks to convert their toilets into public ones.
Moreover, 100 public urinals and women’s toilets have been constructed in 60 days. To encourage segregation of waste, corporators were asked to do a door-to- door survey, and that’s why schemes like gold for segregation waste were introduced.
The assessment ends on February 27, after which the enthusiasm is bound to wane, but while it lasted, it spurred the GHMC to much needed activity.
The Swachh Survekshan-2017, will be evaluating 500 cities for a total of 2000 points. Around 900 points is on the basis of data submitted by the urban local body (in our case the GHMC), and will be judged on the total number of toilets and the way waste is managed by the ULB. Another 500 points is on the basis of direct observation by independent surveyors deputed by the Quality Council of India, and 600 points will be on the basis of citizen feedback. It should be recalled that Hyderabad was declared the third cleanest city in the country in a survey conducted by the Union Government of India last year. The ranking was based on newspaper reports and TV clips on the Swachh Hyderabad initiative of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, provided by the corporation itself. Media reports that highlighted the dirt and grime in the city were obviously not forwarded to the ministry.