Industrial city lags in national Swachhta rankings

LUDHIANA: Once again, the city lagged in the swachhta survekshan rankings, result of which was announced on Saturday. The city was ranked 40 from among 45 cities in the country having population of more than 10 lakh. Last time, the city secured rank 39. MC officials blamed the non-functional sewage treatment plants and failure to process solid waste for the poor result this time.
Like the previous year, civic officials said that sewage treatment plants were not fully functional. They said work on one STP would be completed by the year-end but the entire project would take time. Civic officials said that they could not do much on the solid waste management front. To gain ODF ++ ranking (open defecation free), STP plants should be functional.
The city got 3,005 marks while Amritsar performed much better with 4,067 marks because they had STP and solid waste management plants. In Amritsar, bioremediation for treatment of legacy waste has started while in Ludhiana, it is yet to start.
An official claimed that ranking would not improve unless there was an improvement in working of STPs and solid waste management plants.
Civic officials blame lack of upgrade of STPs for not getting ODF++ certification. However, STPs will be fully upgraded in only by December 2022, which means that officials have to wait till 2023 for ODF++ certification. This may affect this year’survekshan too.
The MC has announced some brand ambassadors to convince people to keep the city clean.