Cleanliness: Bengaluru swept off Swachch survey list!

Bengaluru: It has won pride of place on the global map as India's Silicon Valley, but Bengaluru is far behind most cities in the country in terms of cleanliness.

The "Garden City" has slipped from 38th position in 2016 to 210 in the Swachch Bharat survey 2017 that covered 434 towns and cities. Adding to Karnataka's shame, Mysuru, which topped the survey last year, is this year ranked fifth, losing the cleanest city tag to small town Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

Bengaluru's low ranking is a wake-up call as it spends crores on cleanliness and solid waste management, says N. S. Ramakanth, member of the Solid Waste Management Expert Committee constituted by the SC. Bengaluru, with its population of 1.2 crores cannot be compared to smaller cities as the quantum of garbage it  generates is huge, he said.

"It should only be compared with other metropolitan cities," he insists.

The ranking given by the Union Ministry of Urban Development is intended to foster healthy competition among cities where hygiene is concerned.  It is based on an evaluation of a city's urban sanitation, waste collection, solid waste management and presence of toilets among other parameters. Besides collecting data from civic agencies, the survey takes into account independent assessors and people's feedback.

While  Mr. Ramakanth finds it strange that the city has slipped to an all time low in the ranking despite the improvement in the segregation of its garbage, he points out that the waste processing units have not been operating owing to opposition from the communities living around.

 "The survey should be a lesson and motivate the authorities to keep the city cleaner," he added.