City expects high score in Swachh Bharat ranking

The MoUD has sent a communication to the Directorate of Municipal Administration and the Tiruchi Corporation stating that Tiruchi city has been selected in “the winning category.” The exact position of the ranking would be known on Thursday. A four-member team of the Tiruchi Corporation led by its Special Officer-cum-Commissioner N. Ravichandran left for New Delhi on Tuesday to receive the award.

“We do not know the exact position of Tiruchi city in the ranking. But, the MoUD officials have asked us to attend the award ceremony. We are heading for New Delhi. We hope that Tiruchi city will get a respectable position once again,” Mr. Ravichandran told The Hindu on Tuesday. He said out of 2,000 marks set by the Directorate of Swachh Bharat Mission, the Tiruchi Corporation would score good marks on various categories. It had taken strenuous efforts to get maximum marks in all categories, including solid waste management, citizen feedback, night sweeping, on-site composting, biometric attendance, Swachhata APP downloading, practice and responding to the citizens complaints, community toilet, Individual Household Latrine coverage and others.

Mr. Ravichandran said that it might score less marks only in landfill category. The Corporation had narrowed down the gaps in all shortcomings that were identified in the previous years. The city had secured all India second rank in the Swachh Bharat ranking 2014-15. However, it went down by a place in 2015-16. The survey for 2016-17 was completed in January. A team from the Quality Council of India had visited Tiruchi to get a first-hand information on cleanliness of the city.