Activists slam BMC as only 2.37% citizens vote in Swachh study

Only 2.85 lakh citizens or 2.37% of the city’s 1.2 crore population voted in the Swachh Survekshan 2020 survey, between January 4 and 31. Even as the citizen participation

Only 2.85 lakh citizens or 2.37% of the city’s 1.2 crore population voted in the Swachh Survekshan 2020 survey, between January 4 and 31. Even as the citizen participation increased from last year’s 30,000-plus respondents, activists felt the civic body did not do a satisfactory job in creating awareness among people to vote for the survey, especially as six other cities performed better than Mumbai in terms of feedback.

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These cities are Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Agra, Kanpur, Vishakhapatnam and Surat — all having a population of more than 10 lakh. The total number of feedbacks breached 12 lakh in Ghaziabad and Lucknow. Citizens had to vote on several parameters such as condition of toilets, cleanliness of public or commercial areas, waste segregation and awareness about the survey. The feedback was given either on the 1916 Swachhata helpline, or via the mobile application or the website.

Activists claimed that they struggled to get Mumbaiites to vote for the cleanliness survey and blamed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for not spreading awareness. Rajkumar Sharma, coordinator of NGO AGNI, said, “The best example of citizen participation were Advanced Locality Management groups, which were removed from the system. BMC only wants public participation when they need it for some gains like ranking, but they do not entertain citizen involvement where it is needed. How will they create awareness?”

A senior BMC official, however, said the number of participants has improved this year. “The numbers are more than satisfactory, as last time only a little more than 30,000 people had voted. This is a drastic difference and will help improve our position.”

Mumbai had ranked 49th among 425 cities in the 2019 survey, a steep fall from its 18th rank in 2018.