Madurai city has secured the 123rd rank in the Swachh Survekshan 2018 Survey conducted in 4,203 cities across India. Officials state that they had performed better than the last two years owing to concerted efforts on cleanliness and public health.
The survey which serves as a report card for cities ranks cities based on improved services by the Corporation (1,400 marks), on-ground verification (1,200 marks) and citizen feedback (1,200 marks) - taking the total to 4,000 marks. Madurai scored 2,476.12 marks in the survey, said a Health department official.
Since the advent of the Survekshan, there has been a steep rise in the total number of cities included for assessment. What started with 73 cities in 2016 had 500 in 2017. “As there has been a continuous rise in the number of cities included in the survey list, it is difficult to provide concrete evaluation. If we compare percentile-wise, Madurai has bettered its performance. The survey, which takes into account innovative waste management methods, open defecation, collection, transportation and processing of waste, has aided the Corporations from understanding their shortcomings.
“During the 2017 survey, we did not score high marks in the ‘Citizen Feedback’ section. Soon, we began promoting the ‘Swachhata’ App in public meetings, hoardings and during City Corporation events. We received a good response. As soon as we get a clear breakdown of our score in the above-mentioned parameters, we will get to work on it immediately,” he said.
Madurai Corporation had been declared ‘open-defecation free’ on May 23. This would help boosting the marks in next survey, he said. “We have to work and monitor the general cleanliness every day and cannot let it slip because of the performance and the ‘ODF’ status,” he commented.
