How a woman mayor made Indore a clean and litter-free city

INDORE: On the surface, Indore looks like any another unremarkable town in central India. Indore becomes the cleanest city in India. According to the Swachh Survekshan Rankings, Indore rose from a low of 180 in 2015 to 25 in 2016 and finally to the number one rank among 434 cities in 2017.

Mayor Malini Gaur is the force behind the stupendous rise of Indore on the Swachh Survekshan Rankings. “The day Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for Swachh Bharat from the ramparts of Red Fort in 2015, we decided to work on it. We are quite confident of retaining the top position in 2018,” said Malini Gaur.

For Malini mantra for a clean city is ‘political and administrative will and the support of people.’

Last year, IMC collected Rs 1 crore fines for littering. The penalties for littering the city can be between Rs 100 to Rs 1,00,000.Strict laws had been made for keeping the city clean. Every night roads are been washed by pressure jets with the aim to make the city dust-free. Several public urinals have been constructed with working sewage lines. For clean Indore, individual households pay Rs 60 and commercial units pay Rs 90 per month.

The city has brought down the Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) from 145 micrograms per unit in 2015 to about 70 and planning to cut it to 40.

To design a sustainable system IMC co-ordinated with various associations like schools, hospitals, temples, and hotels that have made Indore perhaps the only city in India that is litter-free, garbage-free and free from stray animals.