Chandigarh swachh survekshan survey: Financial crunch main cause, says Mayor

As a leader of garbage collectors and because you opposed it more, do you feel that the blame of this rank lies on you?

Being mayor, I take responsibility of this rank. I agree that somewhere, somehow, there were some gaps and I will make efforts to fill in this gap. But you should at least see that in 4,237 cities, we ranked 20th…isn’t it worth appreciating?

What do you feel is the major reason for the fall in ranking?

It was mainly because of a financial crunch which the municipal corporation faced. We couldn’t do well in ODF because we didn’t have funds to spend on our public toilets’ refurbishment and that is where we have lagged behind the most. There is no other major reason I feel.

What were the initiatives you took on this year?

Effort was made consistently. Bins were also distributed and an awareness drive was held among people to segregate waste. I would not like to blame the previous mayor also. I will try and fill in the gaps. Anyway it is not like a Kumbh Mela which comes after 12 years. We will improve it next year surely.

What are the remedial steps now?

We will analyse it. Waste segregation at source will be encouraged and door to door garbage collectors will also be informed about it to ensure segregation.

Do you blame the residents for this ranking?

The blame lies on everyone — residents, door to door garbage collectors and us too. I agree segregation coudn’t take off but at least the residents could hand over segregated waste.