Centre's team begins Swachh survey in city

LUCKNOW: The Centre's team handling the Swachh Bharat Survey began its validation work in Lucknow on Tuesday. Three officials are out in the field to quiz sanitary inspectors on their work and cross-check with locals. The team can quiz any resident in the next four days about Lucknow Municipal Corporation's performance last year.
The five-member team arrived at LMC head office on Tuesday morning. The team members are extra cautious and did not even reveal their names. Even LMC officials interacting with them do not know their names. The move is to ensure complete transparency.

While two members scanned LMC documents on open defecation, sanitation, garbage disposal, bio-metric attendance of staff and collection of household garbage, the other three went out with contact details of sanitary inspectors. The members scanning LMC documents are uploading them on the central server.

The team surveyed colonies of zone 1 like Narhi, Kaiserbagh and Babu Banarasi Das ward to check cleanliness in public toilets, markets and residential areas. They quizzed shopkeepers about sweeping roster, garbage collection, number of dustbins etc.

LMC officials said the documentation and verification will be done in three days. After that, a new team will conduct independent survey. The city's rank will depend on aggregate marks in all three stages: documentation, validation and independent observation.