PUNE: In the background of ongoing Swachh Sarvekshan, the PMC chief has warned all employees that strict action would be taken against them if they fail to submit their feedback or review in Swachh Sarvekshan application.
In the recently issued circular, PMC Commissioner Saurabh Rao has mentioned that since last year, Pune got 10th rank in Swachh Sarvekshan.
This year, he wants Pune to get the first rank. However, civic activists have called this entire exercise nothing but manipulation.
Sudhir Kulkarni, city-based civic activists of Nagrik Hakka Samiti said that by making it compulsory to submit feedback, the civic body is bypassing the very own purpose of this survey.
“It is an absolute manipulation. Though PMC officials are also citizens of Pune and they have their view but threatening them of losing their jobs is certainly not acceptable. If such action is taken, then it will defeat the purpose of this exercise.”
The feedback from citizens is one of the key criteria to judge a city’s performance. However, to achieve a good rank, citizens should give positive feedback. Therefore, the civic body has asked Class-I to Class-4 employees to register positive feedback and provide regular information to officials in the war room.
This special war room has been set up to monitor Sarvekshan data.
Civic body chief has asked officials to submit their feedback along with their names, cell numbers and OTP numbers to war room officials.
Dnyaneshwar Molak, Joint Municipal Commissioner of Solid Waste Management of PMC, said, “We have done all preparation for Swachh Sarvekshan. Our staff is working hard to get the first rank in Swachh Sarvekshan-2019. We appeal people to register their valuable comments in the application, which will help to boost points of PMC.”
Civic chief has sent a letter to all department heads on January 15, 2018. Sarvekshan or survey has total 5,000 points, in which, they have to get more points in order to get the first rank.
The officials in the war room have been asked to cross check the feedback of concerned officials.
The war room officials will give a report and if it is found out that officials have not registered feedback, then he or she will be suspended.
The circular states that employees should have to register one complaint each day on Swachh application.
Activist Kulkarni shared that it is very upsetting that the PMC has also deputed one agency to improve the rank of Pune city.
As per the decision taken in Standing Committee last month, PMC has paid the consultancy firm KPMG Rs 35 lakh.
This firm is helping the PMC to improve its rating in Sarvekshan with proper documentation. The firm has been asked to enhance the PMC’s work.
Pune had climbed three slots in the rankings, which were declared in June 2018. It had made it to the list of top 10 clean cities in the country.
The ranking was noted as the city’s best performance in the ranking in the last three years. In 2017, Pune was ranked 13 and it was in 11th place in 2016.
The Central government, as part of its initiatives, ranks the cities on various parameters to find out the cleanest city in the country.
The Urban Development Department judges the performances of cities based on self-declaration, on-site observation, citizens’ feedback, solid waste collection and transportation, solid waste process and disposal, open defecation free and toilets and capacity building efforts.