It is one thing to encourage people to vote and quite another to tell them whom to choose. This is, perhaps, what the Coimbatore Corporation is doing in encouraging people to vote in Swachh Survekshan 2020.
Swachh Survekshan is an annual exercise that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs conducts to rate cities on cleanliness. As a part of the exercise the Ministry lets citizens have a say in how effective is their local body in cleaning the city. And, this gains importance because the citizens’ feedback influences how the Ministry ranks cities.
Ahead of this year’s rating exercise, Swachh Survekshan2020, the Ministry has once again opened the web page (swachhsurvekshan2020.or/Citizen Feedback) to let citizens vote. To encourage the city’s residents to vote, the Coimbatore Corporation is conducting outreach programmes to create awareness and encourage voting.
In a flyer that is being distributed to public, the Corporation is seen suggesting the residents give it the maximum mark – 10.
After showing residents the options to choose against the ‘state’, ‘district’, and ‘name of urban local body/city’ drop boxes, the Corporation asks residents to key-in their mobile number and choose the appropriate gender. But when it comes to the ‘cleanliness level in neighbourhood’, ‘cleanliness level in public and commercial areas’ questions, the Corporation has suggested that the rating be the maximum- 10- in the flyer.
For the next two questions in the website – ‘segregation of dry and wet waste and ‘plants in road dividers’ – the Corporation has suggested that the answer be ‘yes, always’. The Corporation repeats the maximum mark suggestion for the sixth question on the website as well, which is cleanliness level in public toilet.
Objective
The Corporation officials say the objective behind the outreach is to create awareness on Swachh Survekshan among as many people as possible, something that the Ministry wants. As for the maximum marks it has suggested, the officials say the civic body cannot afford to say otherwise.
