The Times of India               22.01.2014

Night brushing of city roads to re-start

SURAT: Once applauded for its innovative ways of keeping the city clean, Surat was slipping on the cleanliness index since a year . The reason- gradual decay in the operating system of night cleaning brushing of roads through contract led to number of issues including misappropriation of funds and contractors doing a shabby job

The situation got so bad that Surat Municipal corporation (SMC) stopped the cleaning and brushing contracts and started getting the city roads brushed through their own daily wagers.

"Delegations from other cities used to visit our city to observe our night brushing and cleaning activities and implement our methods in their cities," said Rajesh Desai, chairman of the Standing Committee.

"We thought this is our USP and we can't let it slip away. So we have decided to re start the activity with new system," he added.

Allocation of Rs 1.75 crore for night brushing of city roads in this year's budget indicates that the activity would be restarted immediately. Tenders would be called for and with strict compliance conditions.

It was after the plague of 1994 the new concept of night brushing and cleaning was introduced. It went on successfully for more than 15 years making Surat a model city in the country. It was ranked in top three cleanest city of the nation .

Even today city ranks in top three cleanest city of the country and spends more than Rs 4 crore to keep it self clean but night cleaning and brushing has stopped from last one year.