COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation has bettered its position in the ‘Swachh Bharat mission’ ranking, compared to last year. The city has been placed 16th this year, against its 18th position last year.
This is another occasion to look into the civic body’s pluses and minuses in city maintenance. While every day the corporation dumps 800 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes of wastes in the Vellalore dump at Coimbatore with the help of 100 lorries, two private firms were involved in the waste segregation process. So far, Rs 513 crore fund has been allotted for solid waste management process, say officials.
Even though the city corporation has achieved a new Guinness record by creating awareness among more than 13,000 students, it has yet fallen short in solid waste management, which pushed the city into lagging behind Tiruchy.
During the first year of ranking, due to lack of coordination between the corporation officials and the ‘Swachh Bharat’ team had led it to the 196th position in overall ranking. Learning from this mistake, the corporation formed a team, which held a meeting with Swachh ranking officials and explained to them what the Corporation achieved. With the help of officials, Coimbatore has got a better rank this year.
The private agencies’ representatives conducted a ‘Swachh Bharat’ survey in Coimbatore in January. They have collected information about the extent of open defecation, solid waste management, wastewater treatment, drinking water quality, surface water quality and mortality due to water-borne diseases. This survey was commissioned by the Ministry of Urban Development as required under the National Sanitation Policy of 2008.
“We feel happy as the city position in the ‘Swachh Bharat ranking’ has climbed up from 18th to 16th position. This year we have got 289 additional points during the survey than last year. We thank the residents, saniary workers and the volunteers who worked for the city’s cleanness. At this juncture, we have requested the residents to segregate the degradable and non-degradable waste from their homes, which will help the corporation to achieve more. We will try to get even better position next year,” said corporation commissioner, K. Vijaykarthikeyan.
