The temple city of Udupi has been ranked 143rd in the Swachh Survekshan 2017 undertaken by the Quality Council of India across 434 cities in the country.
But the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) can still have the consolation of topping the list of the CMCs in the State in the survey.
The cleanliness survey was done across the country by Union Urban Development Ministry.
However, municipal authorities here have taken the results of the survey as added responsibility on them.
Speaking to The Hindu , CMC Commissioner D. Manjunathaiah, said: “We are not satisfied with the results. We see it as more responsibility to achieve more. We will identify the tasks which we have to achieve in the next one year and also gear our personnel for it.”
The CMC had already taken up a drive to attain open-defecation free tag. It was also focusing on banning the use of plastic completely.
Mr. Manjunathaiah said that if the use of plastic was stopped, nearly 50% of the issues of waste management would be solved.
Another problem the CMC had identified in its cleanliness drive was the tendency among some people to throw away garbage wherever they wanted.
“The CMC taskforce has identified those involved in such reckless disposal of waste. We will be issuing notices to them,” he said.
A meeting of hotels, malls and big establishments on stopping the use of plastic would be held at the Deputy Commissioner’s office on May 12.
“Some big establishments are using hard plastic, which is unacceptable. We have issued notices to some of them. They must use bags made of cloth or paper,” he said. While segregation of waste at source is in force in 564 apartments in the city, the CMC will target individual houses this time. It will start distributing buckets to put wet and dry waste separately to these houses soon.
This drive will also be expanded to all municipal wards.
Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, said that priority would also be given to implementation of underground drainage (UGD) works in the city, which was underway under the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP).
