The Hindu 14.12.2017
‘Swachh Ambassador’ to bat for clean streets
A survey to evaluate the cleanliness of the city will be held from
January 4 to March 4 in view of Swachh Survekshan 2018. The city will be
competing with 4,000 others in the country to secure a ranking based on
community health and hygiene.
In 2017, Madurai secured a rank of 57 out of 400 cities.
Cleanliness
will get 4,000 marks based on services provided. The report will
include construction of toilets, clean roads, waste segregation and
compost units. It will be submitted to representatives of Swachh Bharat
Mission, who, in turn, will visit the city for direct observation.
An important component of the survey is feedback from citizens. They will be called through automated recorded phone calls.
Their
use of the ‘Swachhata’ app – a redressal mechanism to inform the
corporation about inadequacies in the area – will be ascertained.
Corporation
Commissioner S. Aneesh Sekhar said the city would have a ‘Swachh
Ambassador,’ a popular personality who will advocate the need for clean
streets, waste segregation and an open-defecation free space. The
corporation will host a happy street programme to create awareness.
Tentatively, a marathon has been planned.
Stating that the
corporation would focus on improving solid waste management in the city,
he said that those shops that did not follow segregation methods would
be fined.
A Health Department official stated that a very few has
downloaded the Swachhata app. Only five to 10 complaints are registered
on the app but the WhatsApp helpline gets at least 300 complaints a day.
But the complaints on the helpline are not counted as part of the
assessment.
Residents in the newly added areas say that
door-to-door garbage collection is not done regularly. K. Soundari, who
lives in Muthusamy Street (ward 63-Villapuram), says that it is quite
common to find garbage in every nook and corner of roadside. Community
toilets do not function.
“People defecate in the open because
there are no bathrooms. A lot of work needs to be done before the city
is declared open defecation free,” she says.