BENGALURU: With a ranking of 216, Bengaluru has not only slid further down the Swachh Bharat Survekshan rankings, but also fared poorly compared to most other Metros in the country. The rankings were released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Saturday and are based on surveys undertaken by the Swachh Bharat Mission. Other metro cities which were ranked higher than Bengaluru include New Delhi (4), Navi Mumbai (9), Pune (10), Ahmedabad (12), Greater Mumbai (18), Greater Hyderabad (27), South Delhi (32) and Chennai (100).
Out of 4,000 marks, the city scored 2,001.98 as per the Swachh Survekshan surveys. Its score in the ‘citizen feedback’ category was 619, considerably lower than the state average of 724.5 and the national average of 837.52.Dr Sandhya M N, nodal officer for Swachh Bharat Survekshan and medical officer for Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), was involved in the surveys. “The two areas where the city lost marks were that it had not been declared to be open defecation free, and the number of toilets were not as per the guidelines,” she said.
She added that the city scored especially well in the category of citizens’ participation in civic issues and in management of waste generated during major festivals.Explaining Bengaluru’s poor performance, N S Ramakanth, expert committee member, solid waste management, BBMP, said the city lagged behind other metros due to lack of implementation of rules, which is linked to the lack of political will to do so. “There are problems with other cities too, but Bengaluru is bad, especially when it comes to solid waste management,” he said. He pointed to the city’s inability to enforce segregation of garbage as an example.
Kathyayini Chamaraj, an activist and founder of Citizen Voluntary Initiative for the City (CIVIC), said the city has continually flouted High Court orders pertaining to garbage disposal since 2012.
“The BBMP has not used funds from Swachh Bharat to buy hygienic equipment. There is no infrastructure in place to collect segregated waste. Collection vehicles are not covered, garbage is dumped on the ground and manually lifted to compactors. Ward committees have to meet to implement these rules, but the garbage mafia hinders them from it. As a result of these, the city has become visibly dirty,” she said.