Indore civic body launches cleanliness drive to pass ‘quality’ test

The Indore Municipal Corporation started a special cleanliness drive as a team of the Quality Council of India is in the city to carry out a survey on Swachh Bharat Mission, an official said on Wednesday.

The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) started a special cleanliness drive as a team of the Quality Council of India (QCI) is in the city to carry out a survey on Swachh Bharat Mission, an official said on Wednesday.

Pitiable condition of Khan river in Harsiddhi area. (Arun Mondhe/HT photo)

A three-member team of the quality council is conducting surveys at 42 places across the city to study its cleanliness and sanitation, said Rohan Saxena, additional commissioner of the corporation.

Officials equipped with hand-held GPS devices have visited the city neighbourhoods and uploaded photographs, he said. The survey is being conducted in 75 major cities across the country that account for more than 50% of country’s urban population.

The nationwide ranking of cities will be based on the survey results which are expected to be announced in the last week of January.

The team will also question residents about sanitation in their neighbourhoods and record their statements to assess the city’s cleanliness and visit Devguradia landfill site, where at least 4 lakh metric tonne of waste is lying unprocessed for years forming a hillock.

Saxena had recently ordered civic officials to conduct a “special swachhta abhiyan” in the city between January 5 and January 20.

The quality council team is conducting field surveys and inspecting sanitation records. The team is checking attendance records of sanitation workers, garbage collection data, number of dustbins, and mechanism in place for disposal of construction debris, bulk waste generators like hotels, marriage gardens and commercials complex and others.

Comprehensive data on waste management practices taken by the corporation for the past two years have been given to the team to evaluate the city’s waste disposal management system.

The team has also collected reports related to the number of public toilets, individual toilets and involvement of NGOs for creating awareness about the cleanliness mission.