Download cleanliness app, help your civic body ‘win’
NEW DELHI: The South Delhi Municipal Corpoation, in order to boost its rankings during the Swacch survey of 2018, has decided to try a novel approach.
The south civic body has asked residents living under its jurisdiction to download the Swachhata app on their mobile phones. The app, if downloaded a certain number of times, can help the civic body earn extra points in the countrywide survey.
The official app of the survey — Swachhata-mohua (Union ministry of housing and urban affairs) — is available for free on Google Playstore. However, it had been downloaded only around 28,000 times till the time of filing this report.
The civic body needs 1,02,000 more app downloads from residents to be able to earnn the 150 extra points.
The app enables citizens across Delhi to post their civic issues related related complaints, such as open garbage dump and broken public toilets. The complaints then are forwarded to the concerned city’s corporation. The municipality thereafter assigns the task to the sanitation inspector of that ward.
Under the Swachh Surveskshan 2018, 400 points are allotted to the use of mobile app. “Of the 400 points, 150 are for the number of downloads by residents in a municipality , 150 points are for redress of complaints within 12 working hours and the other 100 for dynamic performance of a municipality,” said an official.
To earn 150 points, a municipality in Delhi has to get at least 1,30,000 app downloads from residents. With just three weeks to meet the January 31 deadline, the SDMC has managed only managed 28,000 downloads so far.
The three civic bodies haven’t fared well in the last two surveyss. The north, south and east corporations had ranked 279, 196 and 202, respectively in the Swachh Suvekshan 2017, out of a list of 434 cities.
“This year, though the deadline for components such as waste segregation, toilet construction, door-to-door collection and waste management got over on December 31, MOHUA extended the time limit for downloading the Swachhta mobile application till January 31,” said senior SDMC official.
On Saturday, west Delhi MP, Prawesh Verma, launched a swachhata sandesh van in his area to request residents to download the app and get grievances related to the toilets and sanitation resolved within twelve working hours.
“The van will also play out recorded messages and motivate people to contribute at least 20 hours in a week on swachhata related activities, including shramdan,”said Verma.
The south zone, on the other hand, has roped in an auto tipper and also placed hoardings at various places to spread awareness.
The corporation is also using social media to track work in each zone. Whatsapp groups have been formed and sanitation work by the staff is uploaded daily. “This time we have geared up to improve our performance by displaying the best work in the field of waste segregation, doorto-door garbage collection and waste management,” said an official.