The agency appointed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to rank clean cities across the country as part of Swachh Survekshan 2018 has sought additional data from the Tiruchi City Corporation, one of the contenders for the top positions in the ranking.
The civic body, which was adjusted the sixth best clean city in 2017 survey, had submitted its detailed city profile-cum-proposal running into about 30,000 pages in five volumes. The profile, which was revolved around the city's solid waste management, contains elaborate details on sources of garbage, collection, segregation and transportation of garbage to common compost yard and micro compost yards. The Corporation had enclosed material evidence to prove its claim on large scale reduction in transportation of garbage to Ariyamangalam dump yard by source segregation into degradable and non-degradable and producing manure at 24 micro compost yards.
According to sources, the Tiruchi Corporation has claimed that it has brought down the percentage of garbage being dumped at Ariyamangalam dump yard to just 20%. Remaining 80% of garbage is processed at micro compost yards.
A 5-member team visited Tiruchi a few weeks ago to carry out field inspection and document verification. They also noted down citizen feedback by interacting with the residents on random basis. The team stayed in Tiruchi for three days to make assessment.
The agency, upon completing field survey in Tiruchi and 4040 other civic bodies, is said to be on the process of ranking the cities by taking into account of various parameters and handbook of Swachh Survekshan 2018. In the process, it has sought additional details with the Tiruchi Corporation.
Corporation Commissioner-cum-Special Officer N. Ravichandran told The Hindu that the agency had asked for more inputs on solid waste management plan of the city. It was part of verification process. It had submitted necessary details with documents.
Asked about the chances of improving its ranking from six in 2017, he said that it had taken all out efforts to score maximum marks on all categories. It had been demonstrated in the ground-level. It was expected that it would do well than the last year.
Mr. Ravichandran said citizen participation was a very crucial component of this year's survey. It had used most of its resources to reach out to the citizens by social media, print and electronic media to create awareness on cleanliness. A whopping 55,000 residents of Tiruchi had sent their feedback online. Chances were bright for bagging maximum marks out of 1,400 under citizen feedback and action taken on complaints lodged on SwachhtaApp, he said.
