Ahmednagar road’s bin-free journey gets top-spot in PMC’s cleanliness competition

During survey in March, Ahmednagar road ward office scored 1,051 out of 1,250 points and Dhole Patil road ward office scored 560 out of 1,250

In January 2019, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) held a competition on the lines of Swachh Survekshan Survey, where 15 wards were judged on their monthly performances with regards to cleanliness in their wards.

According to Jagtap there were 15 chronic spots in the Ahmednagar ward office area which had become regular garbage dumping spots (Shankar Narayan/HT PHOTO)

The results were declared in May.

Ahmednagar road ward office has emerged as winner of this competition for three months in a row (January, February and March), whereas the Dhole Patil road ward office has been placed at the bottom of the city-level cleanliness ranking in March.

Segregation of waste at source, awareness programmes by Swach, a non-profit organisation tasked to lift garbage; and an application by PMC called PMC Care which addressed residents’ grievances, helped the ward offices to keep their areas clean.

During survey in March, Ahmednagar road ward office scored 1,051 out of 1,250 points and Dhole Patil road ward office scored 560 out of 1,250.

Rajesh Bankar, ward officer, Ahmednagar road ward office, said, “We hold regular meetings with the sanitation inspectors on garbage collection and segregation. We have perfect coordination among the entire team. Our door-to-door garbage collection is done at regular basis and we try and address the grievances of the residents within 24 hours.”

Shankar Jagtap, deputy sanitary inspector, who along with Anil Dole has planned a system which was followed and has yielded results. “We have been able to maintain a clean ward thanks to our strong follow up on door-to-door collection with garbage collection and Swach staff,” said Jagtap.

According to Jagtap there were 15 chronic spots in the Ahmednagar ward office area which had become regular garbage dumping spots.

Hence, they devised a plan to reach out to the people by posting the sanitary inspectors in the areas who requested the people to not dump the garbage.

Jagtap said, “Several residents refused to pay extra money for door-to-door garbage collection, however, they later agreed to pay for it when we explained that the garbage is being collected from a third party and not the PMC officials.”

The staff managed to clear nine chronic spots like Akolkar Hospital, Wadgaon sheri; a spot near Windsor Society, Wadgaon sheri; Yamunanagar in Vimannagar; Kalwad Maidan, airport road’ and Balaji chowk, Hadapsar-Mundhwa road. Work is still in progress near Laxmi Mata temple, Sainathnagar; Jain Mandir, Chandannagar and area near Zensar IT space.

This ward office takes care of ward numbers 3,4,5 and Lohegaon and has total of 86 societies, out of which, 55 societies segregate and compost garbage at source using vermicompost.

Dhole Patil road ward office covers areas like Bharat Forge, Hadapsar, BT Kawade road, Station area, Bund Garden road and Nana peth.

Arun Khillare, ward officer at Dhole Patil road, said, “We have 24 chronic spots where waste is being dumped. Out of these only one spot is left to be cleared. We lost because we did not report the work correctly. It is true we are lacking in the beautification, cleaning of water bodies and grievances. We are currently in the process of increasing the use of the app for registering the complaints. We have set up helps desks in five areas which were also chronic spots.”

He further added, “We have posted our sanitation inspectors in areas like Bharat Forge, Hadapsar, BT Kawade road, Station area, Bund Garden road, Dhole Ptil road, Sassoon Hospital and near Wadia College chowk. These inspectors urge the people to download the app and register their grievances to PMC, in order to ensure a prompt response.”

Ahmednagar road ward office points (March) : 1,051 out of 1,250

Sustainable sanitation: 400 points

Collection and segregation of garbage: 206 points

Road sweeping: 157 points

Cleaning of water bodies: 37 points

Beautification: 45 points

Collection of other types of waste: 33 points

Bulk waste generators: 112

Grievance redressal: 61

Dhole Patil road ward office points (March): 560 out of 1,250

Sustainable sanitation: 78 points

Collection and segregation of garbage: 177 points

Road sweeping: 136 points

Cleaning of water bodies: 30 points

Beautification: 1 point

Collection of other types of waste: 60 points

Bulk waste generators: 73

Grievance redressal: 5