Cleanliness survey: Past imperfect, UP looks to gets its act together now

Uttar Pradesh, which has fared poorly in previous cleanliness surveys, is out to get its act together this time around after having faced the ignominy of one of

Uttar Pradesh, which has fared poorly in previous cleanliness surveys, is out to get its act together this time around after having faced the ignominy of one of its cities being rated country’s dirtiest earlier.

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The seriousness with which the state government is taking the cleanliness survey 2020 can be gauged from the accent on publicity.

A number of hoardings have come up, exhorting people to contribute their bit in making their cities clean.

The state government has also said officers tasked with cleanliness exercises would be held accountable if the state doesn’t perform well.

Missives have been sent out to all local bodies, district programme managers and coordinators to ensure implementation of a five-point charter.

It also says that the officials would be held accountable if their regions don’t measure up to the charter which includes cleanliness expectations, like ensuring garbage free city, improving city’s star ratings that would also depend on if a city is open defecation free (ODF). Those which are already ODF would have to declare themselves as ‘ODF plus’ while already ODF plus cities are to aspire for’ ODF plus plus’ for certification.

ODF plus is an extension of the ODF programme launched as part of the government’s Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean Indian Campaign) and is aimed at expanding the ODF programme by including solid and liquid waste management. ‘ODF plus plus’ too builds on ODF and ‘ODF plus’ protocols to push cities and towns to improve “sanitation sustainability.”

“The state government has also urged officials in the district and tasked with cleanliness exercise to ensure that data on cleanliness is uploaded on management information systems (MIS). The data on MIS would also include the impact of drive against single use plastic,” an official associated with cleanliness mission (urban) said.

In 2018, the Uttar Pradesh government had launched a first-of-its-kind ward-level cleanliness competition that sought to pit state’s 12,007 wards and 653 local bodies in a healthy contest ahead of the next Swachh Bharat survey.

Little before this ward-level competition, 60 UP cities had participated in cleanliness survey and out of which five were ranked among the country’s 10 top dirtiest cities.

While UP’s Gonda had the ignominy of being rated as the country’s dirtiest, Hardoi, Bahraich and Khurja were also among the bottom 10 along with Shahjahanpur.

“There has been improvement. We hope to do fairly well this time. Part of the exercise also includes people’s perception on if they have witnessed a change at the ground level on the cleanliness front. So on sanitation, cleanliness, planatation, segregation of solid waste, rejuvenation of ponds you would see marked improvement,” an official said.

Last year, UP had attempted first pre and post-monsoon cleanliness drive in villages across the state and tasked district magistrates, chief development officers and district panchayat raj officers (DPROs) with various responsibilities under the ‘Swachh Gram, Swachh Pradesh’ mission.

The initiative was aimed at covering rural UP’s 97,942 villages under 51,899 gram panchayats spread across 75 districts of the state.