BMC spends Rs 2 cr on awareness campaigns to improve Swachh Survekshan rank

MUMBAI: In the wake of the survey, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is spending Rs 2 crore on awareness campaigns and cleanliness activities all over the city. The BMC has initiated a drive to educate people to provide feedback on the civic body’s efforts on waste management. This step is taken in an attempt to improve BMC’s ranking in the Swachh Sarvekshan 2019.

“In this exercise, people’s participation also has an important role to play in keeping their city clean because of the method adopted by the central government’s team is different. The Centre’s team will pay a surprise visit to the city. They will not inform us and can randomly visit places and cross-check our claims by interacting with people. So, we are focusing on making people aware of the BMC’s efforts and steps taken on waste management,” said an official from the Solid Waste Management.

As per the officials, the civic body’s drive includes wall paintings, street plays, putting up banners and posters, organising swachhata raths and stationing new litter bins.

The official said, “The city has very complex geography and huge population. Keeping that in mind, we have chosen three-star categories as we still need to implement some waste management measures.”

Assistant Municipal Commissioners of all respective wards conducted surprise visits to their area in the morning to check garbage collection, toilet cleanliness, waste disposal and waste processing by bulk generators.

Earlier, in self-assessment of the sarvekshan, the BMC had given itself three out of seven stars. The survey included checking of waste segregation, door-to-door collection, scientific method of waste disposal, spot fines and waste processing at source by big establishments.