Poor Show! Ranked 63 in 2017, MCC in 2023 Slipped to Rank 263 in Swachh Survekshan Survey
Mangaluru: In spite of various cleanliness drives, awareness programmes by the City administration and organizations, the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has presented a poor show in the Swachh Survekshan 2023 with a steady decline in the ranking at the national level. Mangaluru City, which was ranked 63 in the Swachh Survekshan 2017, 52nd in 2018, 165 in 2019, 192 in 2021 and 146 in 2022, has slipped to 253rd rank in 2023. While the urban local body could bag 253rd rank out of 446 cities across the nation, it has been ranked nine out of 25 cities in Karnataka.
As per sources, Swachh Survekshan, conducted by MoHUA since 2016, is the world’s largest urban sanitation and cleanliness survey. It has been instrumental in fostering a spirit of healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens and towards creating cleaner cities. As per the Mangaluru city factsheet of the MoHUA, MCC with 60 wards and a population of 4,88,968 (as per the 2011 census) has received a citizen voice rating of 1,192.4. As per the city report card, the MCC has achieved 95% in the door-to-door collection of waste and 72% in source segregation; 6% in waste generation v/s processing, 0% in remediation of dumpsites; 92% in the cleanliness of residential areas; 92% in the cleanliness of market areas; 67% in the cleanliness of water bodies and 80% in the cleanliness of public toilets.
Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur briefing the media said that the new waste management programme introduced by the MCC on its own recently will help the city to improve its national ranking in future. “All vehicles that transport waste from the city are equipped with GPS so that the officials may monitor the process from the command and control centre in the MCC. Further, the new QR code system for waste collection also helps the city corporation to track door-to-door waste collection effectively. We have plans to give more emphasis to waste segregation and a plan is being prepared to manage dry waste effectively through an agency. People need to cooperate with the MCC by participating in the online survey and also for waste segregation at source” the Mayor added.
The MCC had requested citizens to respond to the survey and submit positive suggestions for the city. The online voting of the MoHUA was open for citizens at https://sbmurban.org/feedback. Citizen feedback is a major component that decides ranking in the Swachh Survekshan. However, the response to the online survey from citizens was less.