HYDERABAD: Special teams from the Quality Council of India (QCI) set up by Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) would visit the city on December 27 as a third party assessor to verify sanitation and hygiene conditions in the city. This would pave way for declaring Greater Hyderabad as Open Defecation Free (ODF) and a litter-free city.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had sent proposals to the Central government in November to declare as many as 1,700-1,800 places in GHMC limits as ODF and litter free areas. The teams would randomly inspect the public places, names of which were submitted by the corporation including slums (4), schools (4), religious places (4), markets (4), residential welfare colonies (4), a railway station, and a bus station.
GHMC officials told Express that proposals were sent to Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Mission Directorate in November last week requesting them to declare around 1,066 residential areas, 600 slums and 155 busy commercial areas such as railway stations, bus stands, major hospitals, markets, religious places and other important public places as ODF and litter-free zones. Based on assessment, QCI will make recommendations to MoUD for cities to be certified as ODF. It will issue the “Swachh Certification” to the city based upon third party recommendation.
Resolution passed
The GHMC general body also passed resolution besides inviting public objections and feedback and the same was communicated to the State government. All 150 corporators had submitted letters to the civic body declaring their wards as ODF.