Govt commissions QCI for Swachh Bharat Mission report card

New Delhi, Jan 9: The Ministry of Urban Development has commissioned Quality Council of India (QCI) to do an extensive survey on the progress of Swachh Bharat Mission and rank 75 cities on sanitation and cleanliness.

"The survey, the first for Swachh Bharat Mission, will be conducted by the Quality Council of India (QCI) and has been aptly named as 'Swachh Survekshan'. It will cover all state capitals and another 53 cities with a population above one million," QCI said in a statement. A base-year pre survey was conducted last year before the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

"In the current survey, findings as on December, 2015 will also be tallied with the findings of October, 2014 to measure the progress made by each of these 75 cities and rank them accordingly," the statement said. Swachh Survekshan is being conducted between January 5 and January 20.

The results are expected to be announced on January 25, 2016, on the MyGov website. One of the stated objectives of Swachh Bharat Mission is to ensure door-to-door garbage collection and proper disposal of municipal solid waste in all the 83,000 wards in urban areas by 2019.

Hence, to plot the progress of the mission on this parameter, Swachh Survekshan will evaluate the work done in strategy for open defecation free town (ODF) and integrated solid waste management (SWM); information, education and behaviour change communication (IEBC) activity.

Besides, it will also evaluate work like sweeping, door to door collection and transportation; processing and disposal; provision of public and community toilet seats and construction of household individual toilets. "Swachh Survekshan will help us assess the level of cleanliness in 75 cities and simultaneously foster a spirit of healthy competition between the cities.

The success of Swachh Survekshan depends on the involvement of the municipalities and citizens of the 75 cities. QCI invites the involvement of citizens and municipalities to make this survey a success," Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, QCI said.

PTI