After scoring rather badly in the Swachh Survekshan (SS) League 2020, there is some good news for Bengaluru. The city is one of the top 10 cities on social media.
According to the SS-Josh Tracker, following Bengaluru are Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Patiala (Punjab), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Thane (Maharashtra), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh).
This means that there are a lot more people in the city discussing issues pertaining to SS 2020 on social media than in other cities.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is making a concerted effort through various platforms, especially social media, to create awareness among citizens about the ongoing SS 2020.
“SS 2020 carries a total weightage of 6,000 that is divided equally into four areas. SS League carries 1,500 marks. We are expecting to score well in Q3, which carries total marks of 1,000,” a senior official said.
The city's rank in Q1 is 2,768 and in Q2 is 910. Of the 280 cities in Karnataka, the city is ranked 62 in Q1 and 24 in Q2.
The BBMP is now set to launch an intensive campaign for better scores under citizens’ feedback. Over the past few years, the city has fared badly in this section owing to poor response. Officials said scoring in this section was important as it carried a weightage of 1,500 marks.
Usually, broad questions are asked, such as awareness about SS, whether the neighbourhood and public/commercial areas are clean, whether community or public toilets are clean, whether segregated waste is collected, whether citizens are aware about Open Defecation Free (OFC) or Garbage Free City (GFC) status of the city.
“The problem with Bengaluru is that apart from garbage and visual cleanliness, citizens generally blame BBMP for every other issue. This is one of the reasons for poor score in this category,” officials said.
Citizens' feedback is collected either face-to-face, random outbound calls, through the Swachhata helpline (1969), Swachhata App and the Vote for your City app, and the SS2020 portal.
