It is that time of year again, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan time. The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) is set to launch an intra-city contest titled ‘Swachh Mysuru’ to ensure cleanliness in the city ahead of next year’s survey.
The objective is to pit wards and different MCC zones against each other in a race so that there is a concerted drive by locals and councillors to ensure cleanliness in public spaces.
Besides, there will be norms for institutions such as hospitals, schools, bus stands, the environs surrounding places of worship. They will be ranked on a set of parameters including disposal of solid and wet waste after segregation, practices adopted for disposing biomedical waste, and presence of toilets and eco clubs in schools. The list of parameters will be announced in due course.
MCC officials, including Mayor M.J. Ravi Kumar and Commissioner G. Jagadeesha, and the former MLC D. Made Gowda told reporters on Monday that a team would be formed dedicated to handling complaints posted on the Swachh Bharat app. Each of the nine MCC zone will have a staff member assigned, apart from vehicles to redress complaints pertaining to garbage removal. The coporation is duty-bound to clear the trash and submit a compliance report within 12 hours of the complaint being posted. “We have purchased 20 vehicles for the purpose and want the public to download [and use] the app,” an official said.
In addition to this, a sweeping machine to clean public spaces such as bus stands and markets has been pressed into service. Information technology is being leveraged to elicit greater public feedback. On the mobile toilet-locator app, which helps one locate the nearest public toilet, users can, with the press of a button, give feedback on the cleanliness of the facility.
Officials say these will be permanent measures to keep the city clean always, not one-off moves to win the ‘cleanest city’ tag. As a short-term measure, the MCC is identifying black spots across the city. These spots, which are an eyesore, will be attended to immediately.
Penalty
Littering and dumping of garbage in open spaces will be viewed seriously and the MCC will seek police assistance in levying penalty on offenders. “Just as smoking in public places draws penalty, we want the police to act on littering as well. They should be empowered to levy fines at their respective station levels,” an MCC official said.
Download app and participate
The MCC has appealed to the public to take part in the Swachh Survekshan 2018 survey by downloading the Swachhata app from Google Play store and filing complaints.
Last year, nearly 20,000 people downloaded the app, but just 10 to 20 complaints were posted through it. Mysuru subsequently lost marks and surrendered the ‘cleanest city’ tag to Indore, said MCC Commissioner G. Jagadeesha.
So important is public feedback that the marks assigned for it is up from 30% in 2017 to 35% in 2018.
Downloading the Swachhata app and uploading photographs of areas that require attention is the easiest way of keeping the city clean. The civic body is bound by the rules to take action and upload an ‘after-the-job’ photograph within 12 hours.
