Swachh survey 2019: City registers max public feedback in the state

Citizens’ feedback, along with certification, accounts for 25% of the total score in the survey and can prove to be a key factor in the overall ranking

The city recorded the highest number of responses in Haryana in the category of public feedback in the 2019 Swachh Survekshan Survey, which ended on January 31. The number of responses was also the eleventh highest in the country. Lucknow received the highest number of responses, followed by Indore.

According to the final update received by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) from the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) on Thursday evening, a total of 54,280 responses were received from the city’s residents this year. The process of receiving the feedback started on January 4. With 1,250 out of 5,000 points, citizens’ feedback, along with certification, accounts for 25% of the total score in this year’s survey and may prove to be a key factor in determining the city’s overall rank.

Officials of the MCG said that the strong response by the residents of the city is a result of the social and on-ground awareness campaigns, which the corporation has been conducting since November 2018. However, they conceded that only the final rankings will truly indicate whether or not they have been able to alter public perception.

“MCG undertook various awareness campaigns both online and on the ground in the past three months and made the citizens aware of the various categories of the survey. People were also made aware of the initiatives undertaken by the civic body regarding the civic amenities,” said SS Rohilla, public relations officer of the MCG.

MoHUA officials will now tally the total scores rated by the residents and take their average, which will then be tallied along with the averages of other categories, such as direct observation, service-level progress, citizen feedback and certification, Each category would carry 1,250 points in the final score.

In 2018 the city ranked 105 among 4,203 cities. In 2017 it was 112 among 434 cities, while in 2016, it stood 36 among 73 cities. The city’s worst performance was in 2015, when it ranked 466 out of 476 cities.

Compared to the civic conditions prevailing in 2015, the city presently has 126 public toilets as opposed to 32 four years ago, and has introduced door-to-door collection of waste in all of its 35 wards since March 2018, said officials. In November 2018, the Quality Council of India bestowed the city with ODF+ (open defecation free plus), which meant that the city was not only free from the practice of open defecation, but also provided the necessary infrastructure to prevent such a practice.

However, despite providing the necessary infrastructure,the residents regularly complain of toilets being locked or without running water. Residents also allege that MCG concessionaire’s workers do not regularly turn up for door-to-door collection of waste.

Additionally, spot visits by Hindustan Times around the city between December 23 and 25, 2018, found that the practice of defecating and urinating in the open was still widely prevalent, particularly in areas such as Rajiv Chowk, Subhash Chowk, Dundahera, Sikanderpur Ghosi, Chakkarpur, Sector 12, Kapashera and Ghata village.

The present survey included seven questions, with each positive answer in the city’s favour receiving 125 points, as opposed to zero points for each negative answer. Some of the common questions featured in the survey included, whether or not the residents were aware of their city’s participation in the 2019 survey, if they were satisfied with the cleanliness standards, if they had access to dustbins in public places, whether or not the waste collector asked them to segregate wet and dry wastes in different packets, if they knew the site in the city where the waste is dumped, whether they had easy access to clean public toilets, and if they were aware of the status of open defecation in their city.

“The citizen feedback could help surveyors determine only two aspects, the knowledge of the residents about their local civic body and their satisfaction with the existing sanitation and cleanliness standards. The problem with such surveys where people can only respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is that people can never give a meticulous account,” said Vinayak Kumar, a resident of Sector 47.

› MCG undertook various awareness campaigns both online and on the ground in the past three months and made the citizens aware of the various categories of the survey. SS ROHILLA, public relations officer, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram