This is the city’s worst ever performance in the survey. In 2016, it stood second, while in 2017, it scored 11th and ranked third in 2018.In a major embarrassment for Chandigarh, the city’s cleanliness ranking has dipped drastically from third place to 20th in the country, results of the Swacch Survekshan 2019, declared in New Delhi on Wednesday, have shown.
This is the city’s worst ever performance in the survey. In 2016, it stood second, while in 2017, it scored 11th and ranked third in 2018.
Indore retained its first position, followed by Ambikapur and Mysuru. Chandigarh could not even figure among the top ten out of 4,237 cities surveyed across the country.
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Interestingly, last year, the municipal corporation had sent several delegations to Indore to learn about waste management.
According to the report, Chandigarh scored 3,787.09 marks out of 5,000, while Indore scored 4,659. The cities were judged on the basis of four parameters — direct observation, certification, service level progress and citizen feedback, each carrying 1,250 marks.
Chandigarh scored least in the “certification” category. It received only 500 marks out of 1,250 as compared to Indore, which scored 1,050.
No garbage segregation
‘Garbage-free’ status is one of the parameters in the ‘certification’ category. Cities were to be evaluated on the basis of star ratings achieved by them as per protocol released by the ministry. The star rating protocol was based on 12 parameters and followed a SMART framework — single metric, measurable, achievable, rigorous verification mechanism and targeted towards outcomes. Its components included cleanliness of drains, water bodies, plastic waste management, managing construction and demolition waste, etc. To achieve garbage-free status, 20 per cent weightage of marks was given to star rating certifications and five per cent was allotted to open-defecation-free (ODF) protocol.
In September last year, Municipal Commissioner KK Yadav had proposed to take over garbage collection on the lines of Indore in order to introduce waste segregation. However, now Mayor Rajesh Kalia had then resisted the takeover from independent waste collectors. He contested the move until the commissioner relented and the move to segregate waste did not get implemented.
Chandigarh received only ‘ODF’ certification, while other cities received ‘ODF plus’ and ‘ODF plus plus’ certifications. The ODF or plus plus marks are given on the basis of condition of public toilets.
Talking to Chandigarh Newsline, MC Commissioner KK Yadav, said, “We lacked the most in this criterion. Agencies appointed by the government examined how sustainable our system was. They inspected garbage generators, door-to-door waste collection, segregation, transportation and disposal, besides management of dumping sites. Even in ODF category, we scored only 50 marks. We couldn’t achieve the ODF plus (150 marks) and ODF plus plus(250 marks) ranks.”
Yadav added that they claimed a three-star rating on certain parameters but got marks for two-star ranking only. Indore received a five-star rating and ‘ODF plus plus certification’.
According to the survey, Chandigarh saw robust participation from residents with 25,760 people participating in citizens’ feedback as compared to participation by 2,44,671 people in Indore.
