MCC strives for top ranking in Swachh Survekshan-2017

Mangaluru: With the aim to top the Swachh Survekshan 2017 ranking which the Union ministry of urban development will announce in February 2017, Mangaluru has its tasks laid out. Mayor Harinath chaired a meeting on Thursday to discuss the modalities to be adopted for the Swachh Survekshan 2017 and exhorted the officials to work as a team.
Mangaluru City Corporation was ranked third in the second sanitation rating of 476 cities, lagging behind Mysuru and Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation.This time, 500 cities with a population of one lakh will compete and is likely to be more intense.
"It is apparent that there is lack of co-operation among various wings of the civic body and this is hampering timely and meaningful execution of various development works," Harinath said, adding that a city cannot progress unless there is cohesion among various sections of MCC.
Mohammed Nazeer, commissioner concurring with the views of the mayor said cleanliness is an issue for all sections of the civic body and not that of the health section alone. One senior official will be appointed nodal officer for five of the 60 wards in the city to oversee cleanliness and also, to implement the various aspects mentioned in the Swachh Survekshan 2017 brochure, he said, adding that ward-level committees to engage citizens better in this process will be set up.
Highlighting salient features of Swachh Survekshan, Madhu S Manohar, environmental engineer, MCC said the survey team appointed by the ministry is expected to come in January 2017. Since, all their evaluation process is online, one can expect the ministry to announce the rankings on time, he said, adding that this year the ministry has expanded the scope of the survey to cover cities with a population of 1 lakh and more. This will see participation from 500 cities across India, he said.
Swachh Mangaluru Task Force headed by the mayor needs to be constituted to oversee the process, he said.
The area of evaluation include strategy for open defecation free and integrated solid waste management (weightage 5%); information, education and behaviour change communication (5%), door-to-door collection, sweeping, collection and transportation (40%), processing and disposal (20%), public/community toilet provision and individual toilet (15% each).