Grime, squalor push Pune to 37th rank on cleanliness

PUNE: The city’s march to progress comes with the negativity of unclean roads, public places and facilities cloaked in dust and littered with garbage.




Pune dropped 27 spots this year to rank 37th in the cleanest city survey under the Swachh Bharat mission in the rankings announced by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Wednesday in Delhi.

Last year, the city ranked 10th, its best ever since the ranking started in 2016. It was in the 13th spot in 2017 and in the 11th place in 2016.

Civic officials said the government has been ranking the cities on various parameters, including direct observations by the team of surveyors and the progress of the services level. It had invited feedbacks from citizens and introduced the Swachh app to seek response from them on the cleanliness of cities.

“We are shocked by the result. An analysis of the marks the city scored will be done. Improvement on some parameters like the star rating will be necessary,” Dnyaneshwar Molak, head of the civic body’s solid waste management department, said.

Activists came down hard on the civic administration for focussing on cosmetic changes rather than concrete ones which resulted in the poor solid waste management.

“Painting the city’s walls cannot cover up the mounting battle with garbage disposal. Some huge efforts are needed. Basic issues like garbage segregation and good quality processing plants are absent. It has led to poor performance in the cleanliness ranking,” Vivek Velankar of Sajag Nagrik Manch, a citizens’ group, said.

All the cities were ranked on their marks out of a total 5,000. Pune scored 3,446 marks.

Four parameters were used for the ranking. Each had 1,250 points. They included service level progress, certification, direct observation, citizens’ feedback & Swachhta app.

Mayor Mukta Tilak insisted that the civic body did a good job in garbage management on the ground level. “However, our documentation was not good enough. It reflected adversely on the overall performance of the city. We also lacked in the star rating,” she said.

Leader of the opposition Dilip Barate said the ranking exposed the hollowness of the BJP and the civic administration’s works. “Both the ruling party and the civic officials have not done enough. They have only believed in show business without any concrete works at the ground level,” he added.

Tilak said the PMC will also take the private contractor responsible for good documentation and presentation to task. “Various infrastructural works were underway in the city. Garbage and debris at these sites are visible. We have demanded proper cleanliness at these sites. Besides, we have already told big housing societies to process their garbage at source,” she added.

Many citizens and organizations said such ranking looked good on paper but the ground reality had immense scope for improvement.

On the 52nd spot

Pimpri Chinchwad has fallen to the 52nd rank from last year’s 43rd.

Additional commissioner Dilip Gawde said, “A city must conduct 100 per cent garbage segregation at source, transport all its waste for disposal and also ensure all garbage is processed. We do not have 100 per cent segregation at source in the city nor do bulk garbage generators process their wet waste on their own. We have also received less marks for redressal of complaints on Swachha app. Feedback from citizens was also poor.”

He added they have made it compulsory for bulk garbage generators to conduct segregation at source and process wet waste on their premises.

“We will have a contractor for door-to-door garbage collection and transportation,” he added.

Manav Kamble, president of Nagari Hakka Suraksha Samiti, said, “PCMC and the ruling party have failed to involve the public in the cleanliness campaign They did not increase awareness about maintaining cleanliness in the city.”

Santosh Maskar from Pimple Saudagar said, “There is less public participation in maintaining cleanliness in the city. People should not throw garbage anywhere. PCMC must collect garbage and dispose it properly. The civic body should increase public involvement in maintaining cleanliness.”